Alternate
by Sparingly119
Summary: Rainfall is a not-so-normal Rainwing living in the rain forest with his few friends. All he's wanted is to see beyond the forest. When he comes across some suspicious Nightwings, Rainfall's world changes forever. The price for truth is steep and soaked in blood and tears. (I AM NOT DEAD. I JUST NEEDED A SMALL BREAK.)
1. Chapter 1: Visitor

**Do not read any of the reviews if you want to read this spoiler free!**

 **I really recommend you pay attention to the ratings. This is rated T. Do not read this unless you are 13 or older! I believe this is too much for young children to handle, especially as the story goes on.**

 **Looking back on it now, these first few chapters are nowhere near as good as the rest of the story. Just keep in mind that I had totally different plans for this during the first 4 chapters, and my writing was poor.**

* * *

 **Book I: Genesis**

Swordfish struggled against his bonds. No use. They seemed to be the toughest thing in the world. He didn't know where he was. The walls seemed smooth and metallic. He locked eyes with the dragonet in the other chair. A young Rainwing. She looked terrified. The creature in the shadows began to speak. _**"The visitors will choose one of you. Every vote is represented by a stab."**_ Suddenly, a hand with a knife shot out of the darkness, and stabbed the Rainwing.

Years, minutes, seconds later, another hand stabbed the Rainwing. She cried out with pain. Her breaths became more short and intense.

" _ **Tick, tock. 16 more hours."**_

Swordfish felt a pain in his back as a hand stabbed him. The first vote against him.

" _ **Let's speed this up"**_

The being raised its paw-like talon to the ceiling. Time sped up. Another blade sank into the Rainwing. Then another into Swordfish. Soon, another blade went into the Rainwing.

The dark figure raised its talon again. _**"Hmmm… 'End my suffering…' Ha ha. Your time will come, visitor 7722544."**_ The figure looked upon the dying Rainwing. The last hand shot out of the darkness and the figure caught it. The figure ripped the blade out of the hand. _**"The final vote against you. Bad luck, Rainwing."**_ The Rainwing screamed with pure terror. _**"I guess the visitors liked Swordfish more."**_ The figure thrusted the blade into the Rainwing. She stopped moving.

 _ **"Hello, main character."**_ The figure suddenly split into a grin of insane joy. Then, Swordfish tumbled out of his dream.

"Wake up, sleepy."

Swordfish groaned. It was his clawmate. A Mudwing named Cedar. Swordfish had just come to Jade Mountain for its second year. He remembered the notice hung up in the Town Center of his Seawing village. It was written on Coral's Waterproof Paper! ™ It had read.

 _We will be accepting a new roster of students into Jade Mountain Academy this year. If you were not accepted last year, please consider trying again this year. We have more space ever since that bomb went off. Please ignore that last sentence about a bomb. Deaths and assassination attempts behind, we are looking forward to more students at Jade Mountain Academy! "Where you're safe almost all the time!"_

 _-Princess Tsunami,_

 _Headmaster._

Swordfish had only gone to get away from his dumb family. His father, Urchin, was a guard at Queen Coral's palace. He had become addicted to seaweed and never properly did his job. Instead of helping the other guards fight off Princess Anemone when she lost it, he was out back "doing important stuff."

Swordfish's mother had disappeared when he was young. He had no memory of her. When he tried to think of her all he could see was inky blackness.

His older brother, Starfish, was one of Coral's best soldiers. He was strong, handsome and daring. He had been the one to stop Anemone during the Second Massacre. Swordfish's dad was always pressuring him to be more like Starfish. But Swordfish wasn't like his brother. He had always suspected he was more like his mom, but he never knew her.

Swordfish was never good at fighting. Perhaps it was the two unexplainable scars he had. They looked like battle wounds. Like someone had stabbed him twice. But he had never truly fought anyone…

Or had he?

When Swordfish saw the notice, hung up by one of the last two Princesses, Tsunami, he packed his stuff and left. His father didn't care. He was too focused on his seaweed.

Cedar was Swordfish's clawmate. He was energetic for a Mudwing. Swordfish groggily sat up from his bed of sea vegetation and shells. While Cedar rushed around, getting everything he needed for class, Swordfish thought about his nightmare. It seemed so vivid at the time, but now it seemed fragmented and unreal. Like just a scroll story. What in Pyrrhia were "visitors?" He knew about Dreamvisitors ever since Starflight, Jade Mountain's Librarian, collected all three. The news of such once-thought lost animus objects being found all within a few weeks was very popular.

But these weren't Dreamvisitors. The "visitors" were alive.

Swordfish grabbed a few scrolls from his rack and set out of his cave, with Cedar following him. "What do you think the first class will have will Webs test us on what I don't know…" Cedar's constant blabbing made Swordfish calmer. Somehow. He avoided eye contact with other dragonets as he made his way through the halls. Swordfish left Cedar when they got to the new History Cave. He went to sit at the back of the room. He looked around at the other dragonets in his winglet. There was Cedar. There was a Nightwing half-asleep on the table. There was an Icewing glaring at the snoring Nightwing with her bright blue eyes. There was a Skywing secretly drawing something. No Rainwings or Sandwings.

Webs came into the class and began to introduce himself. Swordfish reached to get one of his scrolls. When he got back up, he saw that a female Sandwing had appeared in one of the empty seats.

She didn't just come in quickly. She literally appeared. No one else seemed to sense something strange. Swordfish stared at her.

 _How did she teleport?_


	2. Chapter 2: Introduction

Swordfish moved his seat closer to the Sandwing, trying to see if there was something weird about her. She seemed normal enough. She was wearing earrings in the shape of two snakes entwined together. Swordfish turned around as another winglet came into the classroom. Right. There was two winglets in each History Class.

Webs cleared his throat. "Let's all begin this year with learning the names of your peers. Let's start with the Amethyst Winglet." Webs gestured at the new winglet. "I'M DELTA!" shouted Amethyst's Mudwing. "THIS IS MY BEST FRIEND, TYPHOON." Delta pointed excitedly at a grumpy-looking Seawing. Typhoon glared at Delta with her green eyes. "I can introduce myself, you scavenger-brained, Burn-following-""We don't talk about the war anymore." Interrupted Webs. "We were told by Queen Blaze that the only way Sunny would live was if we accepted Blaze and kept Blaze's sister's names out of this school."

"I'm Rainfall." Said a lazy-looking Rainwing. His eyes began to droop as he said it. Interesting. The Amethyst Winglet had a Rainwing, but Swordfish's, The Amber Winglet, didn't. Why?

"Scaleslasher is what they called me back on the volcano, and still at the Nightwing Village in the Rainforest. My birth name is Farseer, and that's apparently what you have to call me _here._ " Farseer bared her teeth. "Don't mess with me." The Nightwing from Swordfish's Winglet snorted as if laughing.

"You watch your tongue, brother." Farseer threatened.

"My name's Savanna." The Sandwing said with a slight drawl. He wore a necklace with a dagger on it. "I'm one of the Outclaws' best sword wielders. I fashioned Thorn's personal spear for the attack on Burn's Stronghold. I now work for Queen Blaze." The Icewing next to him looked at Savanna expressionless. Everyone in the room waited for him to speak.

"I'm Frigid." He said bluntly. Everyone was quiet. He didn't say anything else. Which was good because Swordfish was tired, and didn't want to hear anything long.

"My name is Scorch." Said the exotic-looking Skywing. "My mother was one of Queen Scarlet's top entertainers. I always liked the pet Rainwing Scarlet had." Scorch looked admiringly at Rainfall's scales. "I always wished I could be a Rainwing, but then I would be dumb. Wouldn't I?" "That's enough. Thank you Amethyst Winglet. Please take your seats." Webs said. They all sat down except for Frigid. "I said _take your seats_." Webs repeated. "Oh." Frigid said. He sat down on the floor where he was standing.

"Oh boy. I can't wait for this year's fun." Webs said sarcastically. "Now how about the Amber Winglet?" Swordfish picked his head up. He should probably pay attention now, considering this was his winglet.

"My name is Cedar. The rest of my sibs are in other winglets. Except for you, Delta. Man am I glad to see you. Did you know that-." "Moving on." Webs said dismissively. He pointed at Swordfish. Swordfish stood up. "M-my name is Swordfish." The other dragonets looked at him blankly. Except for Frigid, who seemed hypnotized by the floor.

"My-my brother is Starfish, the hero who stopped A-Anemone." "YOU'RE Starfish's brother? You look nothing like him. Did one brother get all the good genes?" Typhoon sneered at him. Starfish knew that many female Seawings from the capital had developed crushes on the hero of the sea.

"My name is Vulture. I designed some of Queen Ruby's castle designs. My father is a designer of automated war machines." It was the drawing Skywing he saw earlier. He twitched his wings and drummed his talons on the floor.

"My name is Blizzard. I am top of the Third Circle. I have served Queen Glacier with utmost loyalty. I assisted in the hunt for Prince Winter. My father is well-respected with the Nobles. I have no idea why he thought it best for me to go to a non-Icewing school with lower-ranked dragonets." Swordfish already disliked her.

Webs began poking the sleeping Nightwing from earlier. Farseer's brother. He awoke with a start. "My name's Darkseer. I'm… Farseer's brother." "You call me Scaleslasher." Farseer said threateningly. "Right sis. Anyway, apparently I'm super-powerful, but I'm not so sure about that. Just let Rattlesnake go already." Darkseer flopped over and fell asleep again.

The teleporting Sandwing from earlier stood up cautiously. "How did you know my name?" She had the most perfect voice Swordfish had ever heard. "My name is Rattlesnake, although Darkseer just said that. I was part of The Outclaws, like Savanna." She looked at Savanna, who smiled back at her flirtatiously. "I helped dragonets in The Scorpion Den get food and water." She was one of the most beautiful dragons Swordfish had ever seen. But Swordfish had something else on his mind.

"Why does The Amethyst Winglet have a Rainwing, but we don't?" Swordfish blurted out. "Oh, you have one. She's right there." Webs gestured to an empty spot. "Say hello Vine. Glory told us all about you."

... But where he gestured there was nothing.

Nothing but a dark hole in the world.

Envloping Swordfish's mind. Whispering the loudest thing in the world.

" _Vine._ "


	3. Chapter 3: Anomaly

"Swordfish?"

Swordfish picked his head up off the table. Everyone in the room was looking at him. Except for Frigid, who was still looking at the floor in awe. "I said 'We didn't get enough Rainwings, so your winglet didn't get one' and you just fainted." Webs said. "Then, what about Vine?" Swordfish asked. "Who?" Webs replied. The strange hole in the world was gone.

Swordfish pressed his talons to his head in confusion. "You just said Glory told you all about Vine. And then there was a hole or something." They all looked at him like he was crazy. "Nevermind." Swordfish said.

"Alrighty then. Let's begin with the start of the dragon world, The Scorching." Webs began his lesson. "There is lots of speculation as to what happened during The Scorching, and how scavengers lived before. Some say they lived like we dragons. Some have even said that they were much more advanced than us. A few dragons believe they have found evidence scavengers had small boxes that gave off light, and had the information of the world. They built enormous houses tall as mountains. Though, these are merely speculated, and are most likely fairy tales."

Webs was so boring. Swordfish spent a lot of time examining his fellow classmates. Good old Cedar was constantly making sure his papers and scrolls were perfectly neat. Darkseer was sleeping still. Blizzard was examining her scales and looking at Webs with a look of disgust. Vulture had attempted to take notes but was now scribbling pictures all over his scroll. Delta was eagerly taking notes and attempting to get Typhoon to do so too. Rainfall and Savanna were trading notes. Frigid was still frozen where he was, while Scorch tried to get him to notice her.

Swordfish mostly looked at Rattlesnake. Admiring her beauty while also trying to figure out how she teleported. Was she an animus? Did she enchant something on her to allow teleportation? Swordfish went over all possibilities until Webs dismissed the class. Swordfish decided he would just follow Cedar to the prey center. Both he and Cedar joked about how boring the class was. Cedar was a bit of a neat-freak, but he wasn't as hostile as many other dragonets. "Why did you pass out?" Cedar asked Swordfish. Swordfish hesitated, but told Cedar what happened.

"I asked Webs why we don't have a Rainwing. Webs said that we did and briefly talked about a dragonet named Vine. When he told Vine to introduce his or herself, there was nobody there but like this hole in the world." Cedar looked at Swordfish like he was crazy. "The hole, it like, swallowed me up, and then I guess I fainted." Cedar thought for a while and then said. "You were probably nervous about the day, and you just didn't know it. Like I have a mental crash when I worry about the neatness of the room." "Maybe." Swordfish didn't know. A voice stopped them. "Hey Swordfish."

Darkseer approached the two dragonets. "Vulture left and went to the library to check out a scroll he's gonna hate. Mind if I join you? There are many futures where we become friends." Swordfish stared at Darkseer. "How did you know all that stuff? Like about how Vulture will hate the scroll and about us and…" "Oh, I have seer powers. And mind reading. And animus. Don't tell dragons about that last one, but I know I can trust you in the long-run. I saw it." Swordfish backed away. "You- you're Dark-"

"The Next Darkstalker? Yeah. Lots have said that. But I'm not gonna kill princes and stuff. Too much work." "What can you see in my future?" Cedar asked. Darkseer's brow furrowed. "Uh… stuff." "What kind of stuff?" Cedar pressed. "Uhhhhh… a mostly neat and normal life. In most futures." Darkseer looked at Cedar with worry. "You'll be fine."

Swordfish left the others to pick up some of the fresh-caught fish Tsunami and some Seawing students brought in. He found Rainfall at the fish table. "Why are you here?" Another Seawing asked Rainfall. "I've always wanted to try fish. Despite it being the 'Rain' forest, you don't get much sea-life around there." A squeaking noise started coming from Rainfall's pouch. Rainfall opened it up to reveal a scavenger he had been hiding. "Cool! Scavenger meat!" Typhoon made a grab for the scavenger. Rainfall moved the scavenger out of the way. "His name is Sloth and he is a friend, not food." Swordfish admired the tiny scavenger. "I named him Sloth because the other Rainwings had sloths, but I didn't want one. I'm not as lazy as the rest of them. Probably because of my parents. One was captured by the Nightwings and the other lost his lazy streak trying to find her. Glory noticed my non-laziness and now Deathbringer is giving me training on combining Nightwing fighting tactics with Rainwing skills." "That makes what Scorch said to you even more offensive." Swordfish said. "Yeah." Rainfall replied.

Swordfish returned to Cedar and Darkseer. Vulture had come back from the library and was complaining about his new scroll to Darkseer, who had an "I told you so" look on his face. Swordfish ate his fish and thought about Vine and Rattlesnake and Webs. Something weird was going on. Every time he thought about it, his mysterious scars hurt. Like they were related. Had someone named Vine given him these scars? What about his dream with the… With the… What happened in his dream again? He could hardly remember the dark room, the figure, and the hands. When the gong sounded, Swordfish snapped out of it. Time to go to the next class.

It was Discussion Class, where you talk with your winglet under supervision of one of The Dragonets of Destiny. Clay welcomed The Amber Winglet into the Art Room, which was not being used. "Alright, I'm going to try something different than the normal thing Tsunami does." Clay split the winglet into groups of two. "You are going to research The War of Sandwing Succession, and trace the many events to discover why Blaze won." "Wasn't it simply that Queen Glacier kidnapped Sunny and threatened to kill her unless you picked Blaze?" Cedar said. "No, it was that we Icewings threatened for a greater good and peace." Blizzard returned. "Yeah, peace under _Blaze_." Rattlesnake retorted. "So glad I'm an Outclaw." Clay still proceeded with his plan. He split up the Winglet. Cedar and Vulture, Darkseer and Blizzard (An Icewing and a Nightwing. Great pick, Clay.) "And Rattlesnake and Swordfish."

Swordfish's heart leapt. Rattlesnake moved over to Swordfish. As they talked, he learned things about her. She was just as nervous as he was about this place, but would not hold back from dragons like Blizzard. Same as Swordfish, her parents had been criminals hiding in the Scorpion Den. "I went to Thorn and became an Outclaw, to show dragons that I am not an illegal herb dealer like my parents." She said in her voice as perfect as a coral reef. Swordfish told her about his hero brother, his bum dad and his mother, who was the small warm current in his life, until she disappeared when he was young. When Swordfish told Rattlesnake about his mother, he felt as if these memories were fresh. As if he hadn't had them for his whole life.

Rattlesnake made telling his story not so bad.

The day whizzed past quickly. The new students were eager to make friends from other tribes and be like the older dragonets in the school. Well, except the Icewings. The Tragedy of Winter and Moon deepened the mistrust of other tribes for the Icewings. Prince Winter was an Icewing prince who had attended the school the previous year, but had ended up falling for a Nightwing named Moon. The Jade Winglet was what they were called. They had gone out one day to find and stop Queen Scarlet from killing The Dragonets of Destiny, but Winter left them after discovering his presumed dead brother Prince Hailstorm. Winter and Hailstorm went back to the Ice Kingdom, but after learning Winter would have to kill Hailstorm to regain his honor, he left the Ice Kingdom. Unknown to Winter, Moon was already infiltrating the Ice Kingdom to get him. They ran away together, leading many dragons on a chase and hunt for the two. The hunt went on for the rest of that year, but in the end… Nobody liked to talk about what happened. Both Winter and Moon were killed. All dragons involved that survived gained much respect. That is why Blizzard felt so above everyone else. The rest of the Jade Winglet was still around except for Qibli of the Sandwings, who ran away and was never seen again after the tragedy.

But the tragedy was over. Now, things were better. Swordfish knew that any sort of… romance he may become a part of, things would not end so bad. He hoped. Darkseer wouldn't be any sort of help. The day ended on a good note. Swordfish fell asleep thinking about Vine though. _Who was Vine? How did Rattlesnake teleport?_ Swordfish fell into a deep sleep, with no figures and visitors.

 _ **You heard him, visitors. Let him sleep. Don't disturb him. Instead, let me show you the mind of a special someone…**_

The dragonet awoke from their bed. The itch was back. They opened the small trunk of belongings they brought with them to Jade Mountain Academy. They brought out the weapon. A dagger designed for precise and short kills. They touched the blade lightly, wondering which student would be freed first.

Yes, while some would call them "evil," this dragon had a very different view of things. One by one, they would free the students from the bonds of life. One by one, the students would ascend to the depths of the sea in the sky. They picked their targets slowly, researched them and their routines and behavior, until the target could be free.

This dragon was not a killer, they were a liberator.


	4. Chapter 4: Bloodshed

Swordfish awoke to screaming in the halls. He heard heavy talons outside his room. "What's going on?" Cedar asked sleepily. "I don't know!" Swordfish replied. Swordfish got out of his bed and opened the door to the cave. A Mudwing dragonet was running down the hall. Sunny and Clay were running the opposite direction. A young Nightwing was crying outside of a room. Sunny began comforting her while Clay went into the room. A crowd began gathering outside the room. Eventually, Fatespeaker and Webs came down and Clay went to them. "What happened?" Fatespeaker asked Clay in a whisper. "Ostrich was murdered last night." Clay said, barely audible. "What? Another student killing?" Fatespeaker asked in an angry whisper. "I just don't know who would do this. Especially Ostrich. Especially as gruesome as this." Clay muttered

"Somebody murdered a Sandwing student last night." Swordfish told Cedar. "What? Who? Why?" Cedar asked. "I don't know, they don't know." Swordfish replied. He flopped down on his bed. Maybe things were better back home, with his bum dad and his stupid brother and horrible school with everyone expecting him to be a guardsman. Cedar began fixing his bed of dried mud, smoothing out the crumbly bits.

The morning gongs never rang. Instead, Sunny came to their room later that morning. "Come down to the prey center." Swordfish and Cedar slowly exited their room. The whole school seemed to be dark. The prey center was alive with commotion though. Older students were yelling at the Dragonets of Destiny. "This happened with Sora! This happened with Icicle! Now it happened again!" "This school is a death trap, designed for war-revenge killings!" "We already have the Tragedy of Prince Winter! We don't need anything else!"

"Swordfish!" Swordfish turned his head to see Rattlesnake. "Come over here!" Swordfish left Cedar to follow Rattlesnake. Darkseer was sitting on a large rock with his eyes closed. "He's scanning the crowd for suspicious activity, something Moonwatcher did tracking down Sora." Rattlesnake said in a whisper. Darkseer sighed. "Nobody is guilty. I looked in every possible killer's mind. Nothing." "Did you check that intimidating Nightwing from our history class?" Cedar asked, startling Swordfish. "My sister? No… She doesn't kill unless they attack her first or she has good reason. She's a brutal executioner, not a murderer." Darkseer chuckled lightly.

"BROTHER!" Delta pummeled Cedar. "I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE OKAY!" "Oof. You too, Delta." Cedar said. He was much smaller than Delta. Delta was Cedar's bigwings, and she must have been worried for him. As she wrapped her brother up in her wings, Swordfish could swear he could almost see another Mudwing with them... Suddenly, the scars began to hurt, and Swordfish lurched forward in pain.

 _ **Stop it. Stop it now.**_

Chained up. Visitors. The Rainwing.

It all came rushing back in fragmented, glitch-like scenes. Through the visions he saw another Mudwing with Cedar and Delta. He looked like Cedar, but smaller. He was ghost-like. Back to the Rainwing. The shadowed figure grabbing the final hand. Now back to Cedar's sibs. The ghost-like Mudwing looked at Swordfish. And then Swordfish's vision dissolved into glitches.

When he awoke, he was in a Mudwing village, but a raging fire was eating away at houses. Two dragons were silhouetted against the flames. One tripped over something and the other advanced with strange steps. "No. No. Nonononono." The one on the ground sounded like Cedar. But was it? The other dragon was still anonymous. "Be free." They said in a voice as empty and frigid as an icy cavern. They thrusted a dagger into the screaming Mudwing. They fell silent. The killer stared at the body with eyes unlike anything Swordfish had ever seen. They looked normal enough, but there was nothing behind them. No soul. No conscience. The killer walked away as if nothing had happened, leaving the body to the hungry maw of the fire.

The glitches rushed at him again.

 _ **There we go. Now stay where you belong, Swordfish.**_

When Swordfish was back. He was looking at Cedar and Delta still. The ghost was gone.

"We will be conducting numerous investigations to try and discover the killer." Tsunami told the students. Swordfish was still recovering from the strange vision. "Including this." Tsunami finished. There was a dragon in the shadows behind Starflight. Now he stepped forward. It was Prince Turtle. A friend of Moon and Winter. Many Icewings hissed at him. Turtle held up a scroll. One of Turtle's talons was missing and he had numerous scars. Everyone knew he was one of the last animuses. "This is the most powerful magic in the world." Turtle said. The prey center fell quiet. "Moonwatcher stole it from Scarlet's Ally. It was created by an animus 2000 years ago. You may know him as Darkstalker."

The prey center gasped. Numerous Nightwings and Icewings began looking at each other with disdain. "Now this magic is dangerous, and we were going to keep this scroll a secret." Turtle said. "But with a new murderer about, there is no time for secrets." Turtle pulled a quill out of a leather pouch he was wearing. There was silence as Turtle wrote something on Darkstalker's scroll. After what seemed like days, Turtle frowned. "Starflight, do you know what this could mean? You're smart." Turtle asked the blind Nightwing. Fatespeaker was whispering something in Starflight's ear. "I-I don't know." Starflight stammered. Tsunami grabbed the paper. "How does that even work?" She whispered angrily. Clay suddenly began panicking and whispered something in Sunny's ear. All the teachers left as Sunny said to the students. "Please return to your caves. Do not leave the caves. Classes will most likely be on schedule tomorrow."

"Three moons this is boring." Cedar was saying. Swordfish and Cedar had been in their cave for at least 2 hours already. "Shhh." Swordfish replied. "I was almost asleep." Swordfish rolled over and pressed his snout into his seaweed bedding. The smell reminded him of a time when he was younger, and he fell asleep almost instantly.

 _The smell of the seaweed wafted up from the bed of it Swordfish was laying on. "Do you ever think they'll find us here?" His friend Tern said as she nibbled at some shrimp. "Tern!" Swordfish said anxiously. "You stole from the food table? What if you got caught?" "I didn't though, so why get mad?" Tern answered through a mouthful of the Queen's special shrimp. "Forget it." Swordfish said. "Let's just focus on why we came here anyway."_

 _The two of them watched all the passing Seawing claws scrape by. "Look." Tern said, pointing out from under the hiding place of seaweed. Her talon pointed to 4 reddish talons going by. "That must be the princess." Swordfish said. "But it's not why we're here."_

 _They waited for about 15 minutes until Tern said "Come on, where is he? I wanted to see a real-life animus in action!" "Shhh!" Swordfish hushed. "They can't let us know we're here! We aren't Seawing royalty!" "Well then he better hurry up and get here. I can't stay this cramped for long." Swordfish gazed at one of the many lotus flowers as she spoke. It wouldn't be long._

 _"Some people say one of the princes is actually an animus and the Queen hasn't told the public quite yet." Tern said. "Stop!" Swordfish cut her off. "Listen." The two listened closely as the Queen addressed the dragon they had come to see. Swordfish's brain whirled with excitement. A real-life animus!_

 _Then they heard a "Thump!" and screaming. There was a knife on the ground._

 _Ţ̩̞̙̩̭̜̣̓̈́̎̉̒͌̏͛͛̋͜͜h̡̺̲̭̫̘̲̱̭̮̿͑̾̐͋̓̋̔̒͘e̩͈̞͍̮̗̙̤͓͂͛̈́̊͂̄̉͘͘͠ͅ b̧͉̜̖̬̯͙̬͋̒͐̓̑͑̊͌̋̔͜ͅl̢̛̘̭̳͉̮͈͍͋̒̒͂̑͛̿͑̀͜͜o̡͕͉̲͔̹̮͚̫̒͒̈́́̂̂̀́͘͜͝o̧͙̞̲̬͎̝̘̖͛̽̊́̌̅̆̉̇̐ͅḑ̟͉̻̹̼̯̩͙̒̃͛̈̑͊̉́̕͜͝ w̡̲̭̤̩̳͇̩̺̪̐̅̋̓̑̄̀́́̌ạ̧͚̺̻̪͕̯̖̰́͋̋̾̍͆̋͒̄͝s̡̢̯̠̼͚̠͕̺̳̓͛͌̔͂̔̏͒͝͠ r̡͙̬̞̣̪̲͚̽̏̓̃̀́̐̋̿͘͜͜e̡̥̜͈̩̫̝̲̪̲͗͗́͐̈́̌̈̕͠͝d̳̬̹͕̲̥̥̳̯̳͗͌̀̉̒̈́͛͑͝͠d̢̻̞̞̟̗̞͔̒̓̆̅̓̒͛͂̏͛͜͜ë̙̱̮̻̼̖͎̻̣͓́̀͂̓̑̌́̈́̚̚ŗ̝͔̳̣͎̫̣̌̊́͂̀̀̾͗̐͜͜͠ t̢͖͓̯̳̩͚̮̪̾̀̃̅͐͆͘͘̕͝ͅh̠̤̦̺̠̯̘̳͕̮̍̑̄͒̿̀̀̚͠͝a̡̤͙͎̠̰͈̰̘͒͆̋̄̊̋̉͆̎͝ͅn̢̢̨̘̙̟̻͖̣̲̂̂̈́̍̓̑͛̔͗͝ ť̨̜̥̱̻͉͇̜̭̩̇͐̒͗̍̑͒͘̚h̨̹̝̺͎̠̠̘̱̆̑̃̈́͋͂̓̈́͘͜͝ẻ̢̛̮̳̻̝͕̪̞̺͔͆̓͐̃͂̑̌͐ S̪͈̙͈̟̞͓̦̤̪͐̿̓̽̔̊͑̽̍͐k̩͇̱̫̖̹͈̹͇̇̀̃͛̿͊̄̿̉́ͅỷ̧͇̮͎̻̜̼͚͇̙̏̋͌̇̌͛̈́̊̀w̧̡͇̫̝̜͚̟̲͓̓̉̒̃͗͆̊͛̚͝ì̦͚̘͚̖͙̮̞͓̰̉͒̆̓̍̃̍̚̚n͚̥̪̺̠͔̮͉̜̥̎̓̄͌̇̇͗̍̔͝g̩͕̻̯̝̣̥͇̦̩̏̓͆̃̅̐͊́͘͝'̢̤̗̭̦̗̲̼̤̩͒̍̓̂́̒̈́͗͒͘s̢̺͔͓͕͔̹̣͇͛̌͒̈͌̓̕̕͘͝ͅ t̨̧̗͚̮͔̘͎͚͓̽͊̉͐̂́͐̃̍͝å͕̜͈͔̻̘̯̥͙̌̇́͊̀̅̑̅̌ͅl̡̛̳̲̞͔̺̩̥͉̱̑̈́͋̀̽̿̀́̑ő̢̡̪̼͙̞͕͉̖͔̈́̌͗͒͗͘̚͘͝n̡̢̼͍͓̞̠̼̮̿̄̉̈́̌̀͋̚͜͠͠s̨̬̺͚͖̬̤̖͕̺̎́͌́̑̇͐̚͘͝.̪̺̙̞͕̣͇͈̙͔̀̈́̇̒̂̿̑̊̀͘_


	5. Chapter 5: Observation

Swordfish awoke to someone poking him repeatedly. "Whaddya want?" Swordfish groaned. "Shhh!" A talon shushed his mouth. It was Rainfall, the Rainwing from the Amethyst winglet. The one who owned Sloth the Scavenger. Along with him was Vulture, the twitchy Skywing, Darkseer, Farseer, Darkseer's violent sister and Frigid, who was staring at Cedar expressionless.

Swordfish blinked slowly, what was that weird dream. It felt so fresh, like it just happened, but he was already forgetting it.

"We're going to see the ghost." Rainfall said in a whisper. "Huh? What ghost?" Swordfish replied. "Well, he's not _actually_ a ghost." Darkseer corrected. "An older student, Kinkajou, was telling me about this ghost that lives under Jade Mountain." Rainfall said, patting Sloth in what looked like a nervous habit. The scavenger yibbled quietly in protest. "Sorry." Rainfall said in what seemed a genuine apology to what most dragons treated like prey.

"Stonemover isn't a ghost, he's Sunny's father and the past mate of Qu- I mean a dragon named Thorn, leader of the Outclaw group Rattlesnake and Savanna are part of. He's an old animus, but doesn't use his powers anymore. He is halfway made of stone, a curse he put upon himself." Darkseer recited as if he had rehearsed it. Rainfall and Vulture stared at him in amazement. Frigid kept staring at Cedar in the odd way he looked at floors. Farseer snorted meanly. "You just have to show your power at the most convenient times, don't you?" "At least I have real power and not just intimidation, Farseer." Darkseer shot back. "You call me Scaleslasher!" Farseer said almost loud enough to wake Cedar. "Let's go outside." Vulture whispered quietly. "Wait, why aren't we taking Cedar?" Swordfish asked almost un-hearable. "He's too picky. It's really messy this way." Rainfall replied. They exited the cave one by one.

Once they were out in the hall, Swordfish remembered something. "Wait, aren't we going to get in trouble if they find us snooping around at night, especially when there's a serial killer on the loose?" "Well, if King Twitchy over here is right, we'll find the serial killer using this ghost." Farseer sneered, flicking her wing at Vulture. "Well if Darkseer is right, he's an animus, and he can simply enchant something to find the murderer." Vulture protested. Swordfish blinked rapidly. "Wait, why would he waste his soul on us? He probably doesn't want to go crazy." "Did you people even take it into consideration?" Farseer said. Darkseer looked down at his own claws. Swordfish could almost hear the internal argument he was having. _Find the killer or don't reveal your animus powers._ Tough question.

"Well, we won't know unless we find out." Rainfall said. He began to walk down the hallway. Farseer ran ahead of him. "I can't wait to prove you wrong Darkseer."Farseer said sharply. "So I can just go to sleep again." "Better go steer her in the right direction." Darkseer said sleepily. He ran after her. Vulture went with Darkseer so it was just Swordfish and Rainfall at the back.

Swordfish attempted to start a conversation with the Rainwing he hardly knew. "Hey, you ever wonder why the Amethyst Winglet has you, a Rainwing, but we don't have one?" "Yeah." Rainfall said. "About that. There's… something I wanted to tell you." Rainfall said nervously. "Yesterday, or was it two days ago? Three moons so much has happened since we came here." "Yeah. Really." Swordfish said. The morning screaming he had heard echoed in his thoughts. There was a killer among them. It could be anyone couldn't it.

"But, yeah, you questioned why there wasn't a Rainwing in the Amber Winglet. And you're right. There isn't. But here's the weird thing. I saw a Rainwing with your winglet." Rainfall said with worry in his eyes. Swordfish grabbed Rainfall's arm. "Really? You saw one and now you don't?" "Exactly. I saw them. What did Webs call them?" "Vine." Swordfish replied immediately. He had avoided talking about the weirdness of the first day with anyone. Not even Rattlesnake or Cedar. He worried they would think he was crazy.

"I have SO much stuff to tell you." Swordfish said excitedly. "Let me tell my part first." Rainfall whispered. "I saw Vine until Sloth touched me right between my eyes." Rainfall pointed to the space on his snout between his eyes. "After that, I can't see Vine. I have no memory of anyone named Vine around our age in the Rain Kingdom." Rainfall grabbed at the spot Sloth normally sat on his shoulder. "And I think I've found something out. I've poured over scavenger studies in my lifetime, and the stories of the Scorching. I have a log of my observations and my theories about scavengers in a scroll I've had with me." Rainfall looked into Swordfish's eyes with intensity. "I think there's something much larger going on here, and scavengers are a large part of it."

"I have so many things I've seen here." Swordfish whispered hurriedly. "Rattlesnake can appear and disappear at will. I've had strange nightmares about things called "Visitors" and a scavenger-like being made of darkness. I've seen a Mudwing ghost and a vision of a murder." "You saw Ostrich's death?" Rainfall asked in surprise, his eyes wide. "No, I saw a Mudwing get killed." Swordfish shook his head. "There's so much to go over. We can share more information together tomorrow in the library."

Vulture ran back to them. "Hurry up you mountain goats." Vulture said. "We've reached the tunnel." Swordfish and Rainfall ran towards Darkseer and his sister, standing by a stone opening. "Apparently, there's bats down here." Vulture said, wrinkling his map out of habit. "Bats don't scare me." Farseer said. She entered the tunnel. "Well, I guess we're doing this." Darkseer sighed. Darkseer entered behind the violent Nightwing, most definitely wondering if he should reveal his magic.

The tunnel was narrow and dark. They didn't see any bats along the way. They walked for what seemed like weeks in silence. Swordfish had so much buzzing around in his head. Rainfall knew about the strange things happening around this school. He had never heard of anything about this school being cursed, but if there's really a ghost down here like how Kinkajou said…, the school hadn't been open since Moon and Winter died, and now… maybe the spirits are still here. Maybe Rainfall's studies had the answers. And where was this animus?

The tunnel got darker and thinner, until it opened up into a cave. Swordfish heard a yell. He turned and saw the dragon's body lying on the ground.


	6. Chapter 6: Moonlight

**Chapter 6-Moonlight**

"Calm down." Farseer barked. "It's just Stonemover. He really is half-rock." "Regrettably, yes. I am Stonemover." The old Nightwing they thought was a dead body creaked out. He looked more than half rock, almost fully statue-esque. He looked at the group of dragonets that had come to see him. "And why are you here at night?" Stonemover asked, bothered. "Well, our friend Darkseer," Vulture answered. "Told us you were an animus. And we need a spell to be cast." Stonemover stared at Vulture for a long time.

"Why would I help some dragonets I've never met before, and waste even more of my animus power? Get closer to going crazy?" Stonemover attempted to look at his claws. "I cannot be trusted. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Seawing, you must know what happened with Albatross, and then Anemone." Swordfish took a shaky breath. Oh yes he remembered Anemone. She had entered the palace with hollow eyes. According to Starfish, Anemone simply pointed her talons at a dragon, and a large knife would stab through that dragon's heart until death. Anemone killed many known nobles and many of her brothers. Piranha, Moray, Prince Current, and many more. Apparently, Piranha was a tough one to kill, and while the princess was focused on ensuring her death…

Starfish snuck up and drove his spear through Anemone's heart. Anemone used her power too much and repeated Albatross' evils. Although, why did Swordfish feel like he knew the story of Albatross better?

"But, someone's killing students. You have to have some sort of remorse for that." Rainfall pleaded. "Look, life isn't fair sometimes. Sometimes you have to take what life gives you and make the most of it. I regret my choices, but if I were to go and try and fix them, things would get a lot worse. You people are lucky the Nightwings made me make wormholes to just other parts of Pyrrhia. If they understood what's really out there…" Stonemover noticed Swordfish and Rainfall were listening in intently.

"I'm sorry, I cannot help you." Stonemover replied with a sigh. "Nothing is worth it anymore." "I told you this was a waste, Darkseer." Farseer said with anger. "Ok, let's go." Darkseer sighed. "Darkseer." Stonemover creaked out. "How did you know I was an animus?" "Oh, an older student told me." "Really." Stonemover said. He sounded skeptical. Darkseer looked at Swordfish with a worried look on his face and left. Rainfall went after him, Swordfish followed with Vulture close behind. Swordfish turned around and looked back at Stonemover. Farseer was whispering intently to him and Stonemover looked angry. Farseer looked back him bitterly. Swordfish saw her hide away something, something that flashed gold. And then she followed the rest.

Swordfish kept looking at Farseer, trying to capture a glimpse of what she had shown Stonemover, but he failed. "Are you sure we are going in the right direction?" Farseer suddenly barked at Vulture. "I-I'm pretty sure it's this way." Vulture said, sounding unsure, but the moons shining through an opening in the tunnels seemed to suggest otherwise. "Vulture. If we get lost do you have any idea what kind of trouble we'll be in?" Rainfall asked angrily. Vulture didn't answer.

"Darkseer, can you see us the way back?" Swordfish asked. "It doesn't exactly work that way." Darkseer said frustrated. Swordfish looked out of a small tunnel opening. Two of the three moons were full tonight, and they shone down on the trees surrounding Jade Mountain like waves of pale light. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was gorgeous. Swordfish imagined spending nights like these with Rattlesnake, that is, if she liked him enough. Looking at the stars. Swordfish was snapped back to reality by Darkseer chuckling behind him. Swordfish remembered Darkseer could read minds and could probably see what Swordfish was thinking about. "Shhh!" Swordfish whispered to Darkseer. Darkseer nodded with a smug smile.

"Flying to the Jade Mountain entrance is probably a better way." Vulture said. "All the better we get there faster." Rainfall said "And the sooner I can show you my research." He added to Swordfish in a whisper. They took off from the cave opening one by one. Swordfish was the last out. Before he left he heard a noise. Like a talon scraping along the rock. He looked around, his breath shaky. There was nobody. Swordfish took off. Fast.

The air was crisp. Very unlike the humidity of the sea kingdom. It was a cold night. Much better suited for an Icewing… "Hey." Swordfish said. "Didn't we have Frigid with us when we left my room?" There was a silence except for their wings. Frigid was always so quiet everyone forgot about him. Rainfall, his own clawmate closed his eyes and sighed.

"Do you think…?" Swordfish began. They were all thinking it. _Did the killer get Frigid?_ A sudden, high-pitched noise broke the silence. It resonated louder and louder in their ears. "What is THIS?" Farseer cried. Rainfall attempted to put a talon over one of his ears. Suddenly, the noise stopped. They all flew a little faster toward the school entrance, which was coming into view. Suddenly Swordfish heard Darkseer cry out. "WHATS THAT!?" Swordfish whirled around to where Darkseer was looking. Back in the direction of the cave they came out of there was something moving. Was it a dragon?

The thing moved into the moonlight and Rainfall gasped. It had the shape of a scavenger, a female scavenger, but it was almost as big as a dragon. It was wearing an advanced version of the furs scavengers wear, it had a hood over its head fur. But the worst part was its face. It was wearing a mask that looked like a deer's skull. It had with it a mechanism dragons had spoken of before. A scavenger spear-launching device, where they lock a small spear inside a piece of string, wrapped tight on both ends of a curved stick. The scavenger would pull the string back, and then let it go and the spear would launch into the air.

Quite ingenious for a scavenger.

The thing watched them for a while. They watched back. Both in wonder and in horror. Every inch of Swordfish's brain was saying "RUN! GET OUT! THIS THING IS BAD!" But Swordfish was suspended in mid-air. His wings keeping him in the air. "Why won't it move?" Rainfall choked out in a whisper. Suddenly, the thing began running faster than any dragon could fly. Now Swordfish's body allowed him to fly away.

"GO!" Vulture cried. They all began flying upwards, so it couldn't get them. The scavenger was already beneath them, looking up. "HERE!" Farseer commanded. She was in some bushes on a ledge on the mountain. They all landed on it, gasping for air. "What is it?" Swordfish asked them all. Rainfall shook his head. "I have no idea what that is. It's not a normal scavenger." "It IS just a scavenger." Farseer retorted. "We just breathe fire on it and boom it's breakfast." "THREE MOONS!" Vulture roared. "IT'S CLIMBING UP HERE!" Swordfish peered down off the edge of the ledge. The thing was climbing up the mountain like it was nothing. "Typical. Scared of a scavenger." Farseer grunted. She took off of the ledge and flew straight towards it. "SISTER NO!" Darkseer screamed after her. Farseer barreled into the thing but it latched on like a spider.

"GET OFF MY BACK, PEST!" Farseer commanded. She spun around and around. But the scavenger had latched on with her furs, which upon closer examination had small talon-like things on the paws that had sunken into Farseer's back. Suddenly, the thing let go of Farseer and sliced Farseer's scales on her face with the makeshift talons. Farseer roared in agony and crashed into another ledge. The scavenger was in mid-air now, but it took out its spear-shooter, aimed and fired.

Almost in slow-motion, Swordfish saw the arrow shoot by with an unnatural speed to it, miss him by just the length of his ear, and land right in Rainfall's arm. Rainfall had a look of pure terror in his eyes, but also a look like he knew this was coming. Rainfall touched Swordfish's arm, let go, and fell off the mountain. The scavenger falling beside him.

Swordfish reached out to grab him but they were both gone. Vanished just like Swordfish's mother.


	7. Chapter 7: Lockdown

The library was rather cold during that night.

"What in Pyrrhia were you thinking?" Tsunami yelled at the dragonets who had snuck out. Swordfish and the others looked down at their talons, except for Farseer, who glared back at Tsunami. "We were attempting to find the killer." Farseer answered. "THAT'S OUR JOB! NOT YOURS!" Tsunami looked angry and sad at the same time. "AND NOW LOOK. RAINFALL IS DEAD, AND WHAT DID YOU SAY KILLED HIM?" "It was a… thing..." Swordfish stammered. "It was scavenger-like, but super powered. Like, a dragon-huntress." The other dragonets nodded their heads. Tsunami looked skeptical, but Sunny walked up and grabbed Tsunami's arm. Sunny looked stressed and tired. "You go to bed, Tsunami. I'll tell them more."

Tsunami looked both relieved and upset, but went. "Everyone listen carefully." Sunny said shakily. Swordfish looked around. Every dragonet from both the Amber and Amethyst winglets got up and looked at Sunny. Everyone except Rainfall.

"Although we suspect Rainfall was killed by something non-dragon, the killer of Ostrich is most definitely a dragon. It was a dragon's style of killing." Swordfish noticed his talon was shaking. He was tired, worried and scared. Rainfall's words kept echoing through his head. " _I think there's something much larger going on here."_ What did Rainfall want to show him so badly?

"The deaths have begun since we got you dragonets. Our two new winglets." Sunny took a deep breath, she looked at every face around her. Swordfish knew Sunny liked to see the best in dragons, but she looked defeated right now. Like her hopes had been killed. "So, we have come to the conclusion that the killer is among the dragons standing here right now."

The library seemed to get darker. Swordfish heard Cedar breathe heavily. He was scared and so was everyone else. Somebody here was most likely the killer. _But does that mean they can turn into a scavenger-thing? No, that's impossible. Unless… it isn't._ Rainfall's voice echoed through his head again. _"I think there's something much larger going on here, and scavengers are a part of it."_ Swordfish had to get to Rainfall's studies, they might hold all the answers he needed. But first he had to get out of this lockdown.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours before the tension finally cleared up, and Swordfish got the courage to try and talk to someone. "Hey Frigid." He whispered. The strange Icewing looked up from the blank scroll he was staring at to look at Swordfish with a face blanker than the scroll. "What." He said. "Did you ever notice anything… peculiar about Rainfall?" It occurred to Swordfish that maybe he was asking the wrong dragon about what was normal and what wasn't. But surprisingly, Frigid answered. "Yeah, sometimes late at night he would write in a scroll while talking to his scavenger. I think he thought I was asleep at those times. What about it?" "Nothing, I just was wondering if there was anything abnormal about him." Swordfish quickly covered up. Frigid looked at him for a while, and then went back to his scroll. He was so odd. Swordfish thought. He had left the group that had went to see Stonemover and nobody had noticed because-. _Wait._ Swordfish thought. _He seems strange enough. Nobody knows anything about him. I don't think Blizzard even knew of him before the school._ Swordfish glanced at Blizzard, who was looking bored and… somewhat sad. _Did she know Rainfall? Like, at all? Or is she sad about something else completely? But the fact still remains, Frigid is an enigma._

 _And he had left us behind before Rainfall was killed._

Was Frigid the killer? And more importantly, _if he is,_ _ **how is he able to become a super-powered scavenger?**_

Suddenly, Blizzard snapped out of her boredom, jumping Swordfish and interrupting his train of thought.

"Darkseer." She said urgently. "Can you see who the killer is?" "How would he know?" Savanna asked her. "Oh please, can't you tell he's a mind-reader and a prophet? It was obvious the first day. He knew Rattlesnake's name before she even introduced herself, and he knew the material after sleeping through Web's class." Everyone turned and looked at Darkseer, who shrank back into one of the bookshelves. "So, Darkseer, help us and use that power for what you should've used it for as soon as Ostrich was killed. Find the killer, _Nightwing._ " Her last word was dripping with malice.

"Ok, Ok, fine." Darkseer said reluctantly. "But I'm gonna tell you now, I tried before, after Ostrich was killed, and no luck." Darkseer closed his eyes. There was silence as everyone waited in suspense and awe. They waited… and waited… Soon enough, snores were coming from Darkseer.

"USELESS LIZARD." Darkseer was suddenly thrown across the room, now awake and yelling. Swordfish looked up and caught sight of Darkseer's attacker. It was his sister, but now Delta was blocking her from reaching Darkseer again. Darkseer had crashed into a bookshelf and knocked it over. Starflight, who had been listening to all the conversations, jumped up and headed in the direction of the crash. "Scaleslasher, calm down." Delta said, using the name Farseer had made for herself. Darkseer lifted his head up off the ground and glared up at his sister. Savanna also looked at Farseer with anger. _Why did he do that?_

Farseer attempted to lunge past Delta, but Delta used her strong Mudwing forearm to knock her back. "Why are YOU the one to have powers?" Farseer roared at Darkseer. "Why did Mother have to do her silly superstitions on YOUR egg? Lifting you up past the volcano's smog every night, exposing your egg to the moons every night until hatching? YOU ARE THE MOST USELESS NIGHTWING TO EVER LIVE. You never even told Morrowseer, or our queen about your powers. THEY COULD HAVE HELPED US WIN THE WAR! IF YOU HAD JUST HELPED US, BLISTER WOULD BE QUEEN RIGHT NOW!" Farseer snarled with anger, her snout leaking smoke. "No fire in the library, and never use the names of the queens in this school." Starflight reminded her. "YOU SHUT IT, YOU USELESS PROPHECY DRAGONET, YOU DON'T THINK THE TRIBE FINDS YOU A FAILURE TOO?" Starflight reeled back, obviously stung.

"Well, at least I don't KILL DRAGONS to gain praise." Darkseer shot back at his sister. "Did you ever think being a good dragon _didn't_ mean doing awful things to support whatever corrupt thing your tribe thinks is good? You've pushed many dragons under that lava, and held them there with those spears, just to gain recognition in the eyes of Morrowseer." Farseer lunged forward, hate gleaming in her eyes. Only to get blocked by Clay and Fatespeaker, who had come to investigate the crash. Clay grabbed Farseer by the arm. "You're coming with me now." He said innocently, smiling at her. He led her out of the library, and Fatespeaker went to help Starflight and Darkseer out of the bookshelf.

"Well that was… interesting." Cedar said nervously. But Swordfish was too busy with something else. While Farseer and Darkseer had been fighting, Savanna had started to try and comfort Rattlesnake, who hated the conflict. Of course it was rather petty of Swordfish to get jealous like this. He never got jealous of anyone, except his brother, who had all the praise and liking of the family. And of course it would make sense Rattlesnake and Savanna would do this stuff, they were both Sandwings and both Outclaws.

Yet it pained Swordfish's heart to even think of a future without her in it. She had been like a light in the dark hole Swordfish's sub-par life had been. Her warm scales, melting away the cold feeling of his ocean house. Her bright laugh, cutting through all the anger and failure he had felt around him his whole life. With every conversation, she fixed the hole Swordfish's mother had left.

Suddenly, Savanna got up and stood in front of the two winglets. He cleared his throat. "If we want to get out of this library and go home, we are going to need to find this killer." Savanna looked around the library. "And the killer is one of us. We cannot just sit here for much longer." He looked right at Swordfish and something horrible occurred to Swordfish. _He suspects me?_ "We can't trust each other anymore. Anyone determined to find the liar, please come forward.

The deaths end now."

Swordfish had fallen asleep for a short while, when the dreams started again.

Swordfish was laying on the ground, staring at Rainfall's lifeless body. The arrow was sticking out of Rainfall's arm. Blood slightly staining its head. Rainfall stared at Swordfish, his eyes shining with a strange light. "His name is Sloth and he is friend, not food." Rainfall said, reciting what he had said to Typhoon when she tried to eat Sloth. Rainfall heard a strange noise and turned to his right. He was back at the ledge where Rainfall had died, but now there was another dragon there too. A small Icewing was laying there, dying as well. Only she didn't have an arrow in her. Simply a black spot where her heart would be. She coughed miserably, and then started screaming. Her wings began to shrink, her talons becoming the clever paws of a scavenger. She screamed again, but this time, shadows poured out of her mouth, completely enveloping Swordfish. He stumbled around in the dark, and fell off the ledge.

He attempted to fly, but his wings wouldn't work. Suddenly, from the shadows where the Icewing had been, the huntress appeared again. It aimed its bow and arrow and fired, hitting Swordfish square in the chest. Suddenly, about a thousand different scenes flashed into Swordfish's vision.

 _A dead Sandwing, lying on a bed of mud._

 _A large group of Nightwings, cowering in front of a dragonet, who was speaking to an Icewing._

 _A Sandwing in a hood, giving a speech in front of other hooded dragons, talking about a bright future._

 _A strange green and brown dragon, smiling at him._

 _Turtle, getting hit with a large stone, yet surviving._

 _A dark, strange room with two pieces of strange furniture._

 _A copper bracelet on a Nightwing's arm._

 _A young Skywing dragonet watching another Skywing on trial._

 _The most enormous dragon Swordfish had ever seen, standing almost as tall as Jade Mountain, killing scavengers dressed in bizarre coverings._

 _A purple dragon standing in front of a stone tower._

 _Delta, asking somebody, "Where did you come from?"_

 _Starflight singing to a familiar tune, while chained to a tower._

 _A dead Icewing and a strange looking Icewing dragonet, crying next to him._

 _Rattlesnake smiling at him._

 _A Rainwing, running through the ruins of a building._

 _Swordfish's father, staring at something._

 _A strange mechanism, giving off light with unfamiliar signs and symbols on it, and a strong presence behind it._

Swordfish fell into the talons of something huge and unrecognizable. He stared at where the thing's head should be, but he became so filled with horror and a crushing hopelessness, he crumpled inside its enormous palm.

Swordfish shot up from his sleep and his dream ended.


	8. Chapter 8: Heartbeat

"That doesn't match any myth or legend I know of." Starflight said.

Swordfish and Vulture had been trying to describe the thing that killed Rainfall to Starflight, to see if he knew anything about it. After describing its odd features, Starflight looked even more confused. "There's no tales or stories or anything about something that looks like that." Starflight said. Vulture sighed. "Why is it that when we actually _need_ boring history scrolls, they don't have what we want?" He muttered. "Starflight's scrolls aren't boring!" Fatespeaker butted in. "Thanks Fatespeaker." Starflight said semi-sarcastically.

"Hey, uh, Starflight." Swordfish said awkwardly. He really didn't know the Dragonets of Destiny that well. "Why haven't you used that scroll Turtle has to fix your eyes? I mean if you have the magic right there and there's no consequences, why don't you just do it?" Starflight leaned forward slightly. "We don't truly know what Darkstalker put on that scroll when he made it." Starflight said quietly. "The only time we have used it was to try and find the killer, and even then it didn't work. We don't want to put any spells on dragons." Starflight looked a bit disappointed about this, but he maintained a straight face.

"Vulture," said a smooth voice. Swordfish turned around to see Scorch, the other Skywing. She was pretty, but to Swordfish it was pretty obvious that it was fake. She was trying too hard to look nice. "I've been meaning to talk to you. Why were you talking to a Seawing and a Nightwing? Us Skywings have to stick together." Her voice oozed with a sickly-sweet tone. "What's wrong with talking to other tribes? That's what this whole school is about." Starflight argued. Scorch laughed. Swordfish immediately hated it. He remembered the snarky remark she made about Rainfall the first day they got to school. "Go back to floundering in front of Fatespeaker." Scorch laughed at Starflight.

"Wha-I don't. Hey!" Starflight said as Scorch took Vulture behind another bookshelf. Starflight then turned to Swordfish and sighed. "I'm pretty sure Fatespeaker has had a crush on me since I met her." Starflight muttered. _Ha! I was right! She sticks up for him an unnatural amount._ Swordfish thought.

Swordfish looked back at Rattlesnake. _Do I do that with Rattlesnake? What does it look like to dragons on the outside?_ Savanna was still standing with her. _Probably not as smooth as him._ Swordfish looked back at Starflight. Swordfish was pretty sure Starflight liked Fatespeaker back. _Well, their relationship seems to be on the right track._

As Swordfish was walking back to Cedar, he caught sight of Fatespeaker behind another bookshelf. Swordfish swallowed his anxiety and went to go talk to her. "Hey Fatespeaker." He whispered. "Hi… uhh… Swordfish." Fatespeaker said, struggling to remember his name. "What do you need?" "Ok, uh, let's say you had a crush on someone-" Swordfish began, when Fatespeaker cut him off. "I do not. I don't like Starflight. He…" Fatespeaker trailed off her denying the obvious after she realized what Swordfish had really said. "Ok yes continue." She said. "If you hypothetically had a crush on someone what do you do to make them like you back?" If Swordfish could find out what Fatespeaker had done to make Starflight like him back, he could find a way to make Rattlesnake like him back.

"Well, I would care for him- I mean whoever- I would care for whoever I would like after they got hurt. Be there for them when things are tough." _Oh, well, that answers that. It's not exactly like I want Rattlesnake to get hurt._ Swordfish's thoughts were interrupted when Cedar tapped his shoulder.

"You might want to come here." Cedar said. He had a dark look on his face. Swordfish followed Cedar to the bookshelf where Vulture and Scorch had gone. Behind it, Typhoon had Scorch pinned down to the ground. "Come on, say you support that Skywing terrorist ONE MORE TIME." Typhoon growled at Scorch. "Scarlet wasn't a bad queen. She was strong and good for the Skywings. Unlike your Coral. Hm, what happened at the Summer Palace again?" Scorch taunted in her smooth voice. Typhoon shook Scorch with anger. "If it weren't for the rules of this place I would kill you right here, right now. Nobody disrespects my queen." "In my opinion it seems like you need this. Someone to break the order around you. You need to have some real fun sometime." Scorch stared into Typhoon's eyes. "I know you want to." Typhoon blushed slightly and pushed Scorch away. "I could report you to the teachers." Typhoon said. "As could I." Scorch countered.

 _So Scorch is a Scarlet supporter. Well, not a big surprise considering her mother was Scarlet's top entertainer. Still, if anyone found out, she could get kicked out of Jade Mountain._ Swordfish looked at Scorch. _Maybe that would be for the better, but maybe not._ Suddenly, Swordfish heard Rattlesnake call him over. He went to where she called. Next to her, Vulture and Savanna were talking. "She wanted to know if I supported her too." Vulture was saying to Savanna. "Okay, hold on Vulture." Savanna said to Vulture, and then he turned to Swordfish. "Rattlesnake and I are tryin' to find out who the killer is. Will you answer some questions?" Savanna asked Swordfish. Swordfish agreed to answer the questions.

Throughout the entire interrogation, Swordfish answered all the questions truthfully. Everything about Rainfall's death. What he knew about Ostrich, his past. Swordfish hated bringing up the past. His careless dad, his gone mother, his jerk brother. How he had been overlooked and treated like a regurgitated clam his whole life. Plagued by mysterious nightmares, how everyone expected him to be just like his brother and father before him, how he never had any money or treasure. So much to the point that he didn't care for treasure any more.

The whole time, as he explained his story, Savanna looked more and more worried, and more suspicious. After Savanna got what he wanted, Swordfish attempted to get sleep, until Starflight announced, "Okay, you can go to your classes. But please, please be careful." But Swordfish was already thinking of something else, most likely dangerous, but he had to do it.

He had to get to Rainfall's chest. The answers to everything lay inside. He clenched his fist. Something was coming.

Something big.

 **Starting on September 10** **th** **, I will attempt to update this story every Sunday. Please keep updated, because sometimes life happens and I'm not able to update this for a long time.**


	9. Winglet 1: Outlaw

**Disclaimer: This Vulture is not the Skywing in Jade Mountain. Obviously, I began this story before Darkness of Dragons was released.**

 **Every so often, I will release an "Alternate Winglet." A short story in between parts of Alternate that tells more of the story. Kind of like an intermission.**

 **Alternate Winglet 1: Outlaw**

Rattlesnake ran through the Scorpion Den. Her small leather pouch thumped against her chest, filled up with the food she had stolen. The thugs chasing her most likely remembered her. They screamed at her, "YOU THEIVING DRAGONET! WHEN WE CATCH YOU, YOU'LL REGRET YOU LIVED!"

They were from Vulture's Enclave. The horrible dragons who ruled the lawless underground of this city. Rattlesnake ducked into an alley and brought out a plum from her pouch. The stared at it. She had stolen from them because The Enclave had so much, and the orphans Rattlesnake had befriended had so little, but something nagged at her.

When Rattlesnake was young, she was a thief. Just like her father. Rattlesnake's mother stayed home and kept young orphans in the area sage. Rattlesnake's father stole for a noble cause. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor in his gang. Yes, her father was part of a gang, but one that attempted to create peace in the Scorpion Den. Not like the Outclaws, which consisted of the smartest dragons in the Scorpion Den, but it included orphans and those who were less fortunate. It was open to anybody.

But nobody ever stole from Vulture. Vulture had an army of evil, greedy and violent dragons. Not only was Vulture himself a merciless killer, but his daughter was the best assassin in the Sand Kingdom. Nobody stole from Vulture. Nobody.

Except Rattlesnake. She didn't even know it was from Vulture. Until when she returned home and her father was in tears.

Vulture's thugs had come and took Rattlesnake's mother away. Away to kill her. And it was all Rattlesnake's fault. Her father made her vow to never steal again. They both quit the gang and her father sunk into a depression that lasted until now.

This was two years ago. Now, Rattlesnake was four, and old enough to join the gang on her own. She joined again, but refused to steal. Until now. Now, more and more orphans were starving. And The Enclave had become more powerful now that the war had almost lasted 20 years. The Dragonets were coming to stop the war, and the three queens were warring even more. Creating more refugees in this city. Rattlesnake had stolen again.

Rattlesnake made turn after turn until the sounds of talons behind her narrowed her down to one pair. Rattlesnake knew these roads better than most. _But then again, probably so does he._ Rattlesnake reached a place where multiple alleyways tangled together. She walked through many, trying to shake the thug, and then doubled back, coming face-to-face with a thug.

"Ah, so it is you again." He said in a gruff voice, pinning her to a wall. "I thought you learned your lesson about stealing from us. Nobody who does it, gets away with it. So let's continue our little game. Every time you steal something from us, we steal something from you. It's only fair." Rattlesnake squirmed against his talons, trying to aim her venomous tail at the thug's heart, but he just laughed and pinned her tail down with one of his back talons.

"Luckily for you, last time, you took something mostly worthless. So we took something just as worthless from you two years ago. I don't know what happened to her after I helped take her away, but I'm willing to guess Vulture got a new tattoo a few days later. How about we add one mor-." The thug got cut off when a wooden plank was slammed against the back of his head. The thug crumpled to the ground, out cold. Rattlesnake looked to see her rescuer's face. It was a dragonet about her age. He threw the plank to the side. "Sorry, I can't stand the arrogance of those guys." He said with a drawl.

He dusted himself down. "Name's Savanna." He held out his talon. "I'm Rattlesnake." Rattlesnake responded slightly warily. "I admire what you did, stealing from those rich cactus-lickers." Savanna said.

"As did I." Said a voice from the other end of the alley. There stood a full-grown dragon. He looked ordinary, except for the fact that he had six claws. "I admire your resourcefulness." He said to Savanna. "And I admire your determination to do what's right." He said to Rattlesnake. "Come with me please, we've been looking for dragons like you two."


	10. Chapter 9: Waiting

Swordfish could hardly pay attention to his classes, and neither could his friends. A group of Dragonets from the two new winglets had set up a plan to catch the killer and to retrieve Rainfall's scrolls of studies. It was Vulture's ideas. Swordfish, Rattlesnake and Cedar would go into Rainfall's room and sneak the scrolls out without waking Frigid. If Frigid did wake up, that's where Vulture and Savanna came in. Vulture used a makeshift version of one of his father's inventions. "It's a wire that runs across the ground, once hit, it will pull down a sheet of wood across the path, allowing Savanna to come up behind and fight him until help arrives." Vulture had explained.

The group consisted of Savanna and those he found he could trust and/or were useful. Swordfish KNEW Savanna suspected him of being the killer, but the fact that Rainfall had trusted Swordfish to open the scrolls meant Swordfish was important to finding out the truth.

The reason the trap was set for Frigid was because the only dragon Savanna suspected more than Swordfish was Frigid. "He's strange, definitely odd, and didn't answer my questions in an understandable way. Like he's keepin' somethin' from us." Savanna explained. "He may be able to murder sleepin' dragons, but I'm willin' to bet most of us can take him in a fight, especially if we have weapons." Savanna had made his own weapons out of things he had found. Makeshift bows, sticks with sharpened rocks and metals tied to their ends with rope, various daggers Savanna had smuggled in with him, and even some serrated talon-covers. "If this dragon likes to kill, then he's gonna get what he gave out."

The group sat through history, hunting and the other classes, hardly paying attention. Swordfish kept thinking about the coming night, when they were going to do their plan. So much so, that Scorch couldn't get him mad when she started pestering Cedar during lunch.

Farseer was back in class, but she kept her distance from her brother and stayed quiet. Darkseer most likely knew about the plan but didn't need to help. Or he saw what was coming and didn't want a part of it. Swordfish hoped the second option wasn't true. While going class to class, Swordfish, Rattlesnake and Cedar passed Rainfall's room. The three of them stopped and shared an unspoken thought; "There's something in there."

When the day finally disappeared into the sea of luminescent darkness of the night, Swordfish and Cedar returned to their cave. It was a windy night, and a small branch blew in the wind outside their leaf window, making a tick, tick, tick…

Swordfish and Cedar listened to the noises in the outside halls, waiting for the noise to calm down. "I wonder what's in there." Cedar said suddenly. "What did Rainfall write that's so important?" Swordfish flashed back to the time Rainfall told him about his research. "I'm not sure, but I feel it can answer things." _My dreams, the killer, my scars, that scavenger-thing, Vine._ Swordfish hoped all would be answered.

After about an hour of silence between Swordfish and Cedar, they heard a knock at the door. They both grabbed a weapon Savanna had given them, and opened the door. Rattlesnake was waiting at the door. "You ready?" She whispered. Swordfish and Cedar nodded. "Vulture is in place and Savanna is hiding somewhere. We can't get caught by any teachers." Rattlesnake seemed like she had done this before. Snuck around, trying to avoid dragons. She led them past Clay, who was walking towards the library. He didn't notice a thing. They finally reached the door not long after.

Rattlesnake lit a small torch and handed it to Cedar. "Now, we must be very quiet." She whispered, "Try not to wake Frigid, but if we do, you know what happens." Swordfish and Cedar nodded again.

They opened the door.

Inside was a nightmarish scene. Four dragons wearing black hoods and golden armbands were perched around the room, staring at Frigid sleeping. One of them was perched on top of a chest, staring at Frigid. One of them leapt to their talons and brought out a knife. They began running towards the dragonets. "Hey! You-" Cedar began when Rattlesnake pulled him out of the way of the hooded dragon. "Whoever they are, they mean harm! Go!" She yelled. A larger hooded dragon dropped down from above and lunged at Swordfish. He could clearly see their talons and saw that this one was a Nightwing. The large Nightwing lunged at Swordfish but Cedar blocked it with a dagger. Cedar growled and went at the large dragon with dagger and talons out, but the hooded dragon caught his talon with the dagger, and slammed the handle back into Cedar's face, scratching him with their talons at the same time.

Cedar slammed backward into Swordfish, bleeding. The large dragon and the one with the knife began running at them. "Run!" Rattlesnake whisper-yelled. The three dragonets ran towards Vulture's trap, but when they looked back, the hooded dragons weren't following them anymore. But they kept running until they reached the prey center. Swordfish ducked under a table and gestured for the others to hide with him. Rattlesnake began tending to Cedar's wounds. "What is it?" Cedar asked in a coarse voice. "I heard voices. Shh." Swordfish answered. The three waited in silence underneath the table until the two voices were right up close. It was Blizzard and Webs, an odd duo. "…and so I really want to know more about the dragonet my tribe killed." Blizzard was saying. _She's asking about Moon and Winter._ Swordfish realized. "Well, I didn't know much about the prince, but the Dragonets of Destiny told me a lot about Moonwatcher." Webs answered. Their conversation faded out into the distance.

"Let's follow them." Swordfish whispered. "If we can find out more about Monwatcher, then we may be able to find out more about Darkstalker and his scroll." The three began creeping in the direction Blizzard and Webs went. On edge the whole time, watching for the hooded dragons.

They walked until they reached the entrance of the academy, its doors open. "Why?" Cedar asked. He was answered by the wind picking up and blasting them with a gust, almost loud enough to mask the high-pitched noise in the air. Swordfish cautiously stepped outside and peered around. No sign of Blizzard or Webs.

Suddenly, Swordfish heard a branch break. He whirled around to see the scavenger monster, standing in the pale moonlight like a wolf from an old story, seeking out its new prey. Rattlesnake saw it too and let out a piercing yelp. It made a step towards Swordfish and Swordfish and Rattlesnake bolted inside, slamming the doors behind them. "What is it?" Cedar asked. "The thing that killed Rainfall. Run." Swordfish replied hurriedly. "Again?" Cedar complained desperately while beginning to sprint away.

They ran into Swordfish and Cedar's room and closed the door. Swordfish knocked the scroll rack in front of the door, but he doubted that would stop it." They all stayed awake until daybreak. When they emerged, the school was buzzing with activity. No hoods or skulls in sight.


	11. Chapter 10: Mahogany

It had been three days since the dragonets had attempted to catch the killer. Swordfish kept thinking back to the strange things that had happened that night. The hooded dragons, Blizzard and Webs, and the Scavenger. Part of Swordfish just wanted to forget about Rainfall, Vine, the scavenger thing and his dreams and go back to being the Swordfish that didn't care about anything.

But something kept nagging at him. The time when Cedar and Delta and the rest of his sibs were together in the prey center and that weird vision appeared. With the small Mudwing apparition with the rest of the group. Swordfish had kept it in mind but it seemed miniscule compared to some of the other things that had been happening. The part of Swordfish that wanted to go back to the way things were told him to just forget about it. That it was probably just a hallucination or something. But when history was ending, Swordfish asked Cedar a question about it.

"Hey Cedar, did you ever have another sibling? Like a small one?" Cedar stared at Swordfish with a look in his eyes. "Yes. I did. His name was Mahogany. He was the smallest of us all. Why do you ask?" Cedar began scratching the floor with one of his claws, like a nervous twitch. Swordfish turned his voice down to a whisper. "Well, I saw this weird… vision or something when you were with the rest of your sibs in the prey center that time. I saw another Mudwing with you guys, but he was… like a ghost. And then I saw a fire and a dragon getting killed." Swordfish left out the part that the dragon that died looked like Cedar.

Cedar immediately went and got Delta. He caught her right before she went out the cave door. He pulled her ear down to his mouth and whispered something into it. She turned around and looked at Swordfish. Cedar went back to Swordfish. "Meet us in the prey center when it's time to eat." He then hurried out the door, not wanting to be late for class. Swordfish stared after him, wondering what that was all about. Then Fatespeaker rang the first gong and he went out the door too.

When it was time to go down to the prey center, Cedar followed Swordfish out the door of the class Tsunami had been teaching. "Follow me." Cedar told him. They walked through the halls in a strange silence. When they reached the prey center, Cedar brought Swordfish over to Delta, who had been waiting. "So, you say you saw another, smaller Mudwing with us in the prey center after Ostrich died?" Delta rumbled. "Yes. And then I saw a fire and a dragon dying." Swordfish responded quietly. Delta sat back and closed her eyes. "Do you think he saw him? Do you think that means he's still alive?" Cedar asked excitedly. "Wait, who are you talking about? Mahogany?" "Yes." Delta replied, oddly quiet. "He and Cedar were best friends."

Delta sat up and began her story. "Cedar found Mahogany when we were still fighting the war of Sandwing Succession." "I found him out on the battlefield after The Battle of The Mud Kingdom Coast against the Seawings." Cedar added. "I found him in a trench, half his body pinned under a part of a house. When we woke him up, he couldn't remember anything other than his name." Delta nodded and started again. "He had no sibs we could find and so we took him in. We felt we had no choice with how less and less sibs are taking in unsibs later into the war. He looked a lot like Cedar anyway." Swordfish thought back to the apparition and just now realized how much it did look like Cedar.

"Anyway, he was very nice, and understood Cedar in a way the rest of us couldn't." Delta chuckled. "The rest of us always thought how strange it was that a complete stranger with amnesia could understand Cedar more than his own sibs." Cedar looked down at his talons. Swordfish didn't understand Cedar's constant fiddling with things and scratching, but he still liked him. He would tidy the things Swordfish was too disorganized to do.

Delta continued. "Mahogany began training with us, and soon enough we felt like he had always been one of us. We never did regain his memories, nor did anyone ever come forward and claim him as one of theirs. We eventually assumed the rest of his sibs had all died one way or another." "It was kind of sad." Cedar added on again. "It's a tragedy when an entire group of sibs gets wiped out." Swordfish couldn't understand sibs as well as Mudwings probably could. It seemed like a family that would stick together no matter what. Something Swordfish couldn't relate to.

"Then, one day." Delta began again. "We got word that Queen Moorhen herself was coming to our area. We lived near the site of the coastal battle, which was one bloody battle. Moorhen was coming to oversee revitalization." Delta closed her eyes and sighed. "But there must have been a local informer. The Sandwings did a fire-rain tactic, like what the Skywings did to the Summer Palace, to our area. We tried to escape, but we lost Cedar and Mahogany in all the dragons fleeing the area."

Cedar began shaking slightly and began to speak. "We even got separated from each other. I tried looking for him but it got too dangerous. I…" He choked. "I left him and got out of there before it became a furnace. I met up with Delta and the others in the shelter full of refugees from the attack.

We never saw Mahogany again." Delta sat back again and sighed. Cedar turned to face Swordfish. "But, if you say you saw a dragon getting killed by another dragon, in a burning village, would that be Mahogany?" Swordfish hesitated, and then spilled the truth. "The dragon looked like you. I didn't tell you that because I was afraid you would get scared, but it might have been Mahogany."

"What do you mean you saw a dragon getting killed?" Delta asked. Swordfish felt he could trust her. He quietly told her about his weird experience in the prey center that time. Delta's eyes widened. "AND DO YOU HAVE AN ANSWER FOR HOW IT ALL HAPPENED?" She asked, back to her loud voice. Excitement shone in her eyes. Her friend might be alive after all. "No." Swordfish replied. "But I think Rainfall knew."

Swordfish gathered Rattlesnake, Darkseer, Vulture and Savanna. They explained that Rainfall apparently had "answers to everything" somewhere in his cave. Delta suddenly marched out of the prey center. "Hey! Where are you going?" Cedar asked her. She turned around and said "To Rainfall's cave." With an expression like _"Duh."_ Swordfish and the others looked at each other and Darkseer shrugged. "Follow her, I guess." They ran after Delta.

When they arrived at the door at which the danger of the other night began, Swordfish, Rattlesnake and Cedar looked at each other with determined expressions. They were going to find out what Rainfall had. Delta opened the door.

No hooded dragons or scavenger monsters popped out. Just some sunlight coming through one of the leaf windows. They went in the room, which now looked oddly normal for a place with such scariness the other night. "Well, let's start looking." Savanna said.

Swordfish went over to Rainfall's hammock, designed after the hammock's Rainwings slept in in the rainforest. On a table nearby it, there sat a candle, which looked like it had already been used many times, which was odd, considering the two new winglets had only gotten to Jade Mountain about a week ago. Next to the candle there was a scroll. Swordfish opened it up to see hand-drawn pictures of odd things. A friendly looking Icewing that looked oddly familiar. Nobody that went to the school, yet Swordfish thought he had seen her before. There was another picture of three Rainwing dragonets, one of them definitely looked like Rainfall, smiling. "Wow, those are pretty good." Swordfish heard Vulture say when he saw them. He remembered that on the first day of school, Vulture had been drawing in class. There was also a map of a city, labeled "Possibility." On the side. There was a red x on one of the streets, and another one on a bridge going over the river that ran through it. Swordfish looked around to make sure nobody saw him, and then took the scroll and put it in his bag of school scrolls he was carrying.

"Hey, look at that!" Savanna had been examining where Frigid slept, when he looked to the far side of the room. "There's a chest." It was the chest one of the hooded dragons had been perched on when Rattlesnake opened the door that night. The chest was wooden, but reinforced with metal all around it. Savanna stepped back. "Swordfish, he told you to open it." Swordfish walked towards it and bent down to open it.

Swordfish then stood up. "It's locked. We need an eight-number code." Cedar sat down in frustration. "Well we can't exactly go ask him!" Savanna said angrily. "Well, who would know the code?" Delta asked. Swordfish thought back to the picture he saw with the Rainwings. "Maybe Frigid would know." Darkseer said quietly. "I can't see the future with the code." But Swordfish was already on something else. He thought back to when he was speaking with Frigid in the library. _"Yeah, sometimes late at night he would write in his scroll while talking to his scavenger."_ Swordfish looked up towards the group. "I think I know who- or what- has the code."

 **Sorry about not updating. Life happens.**


	12. Chapter 11: Tragedy

Yet another long string of days passed where no developments happened. Nobody had seen Sloth, who Swordfish suspected of knowing the code to Rainfall's chest. But in those days, Swordfish felt more at home than he had ever felt in his whole life. He and Cedar tried making their cave a little nicer, and in Cedar's case, making Swordfish's side a little neater. But they had fun together. "How do you even manage to sleep on this mess?" Cedar asked Swordfish, staring at the mess of seaweed, seashells and rocks that had once been neat that Swordfish slept on. Swordfish shrugged. "I don't know. I guess home was always such a mess I'm used to it."

There had been no murders, no strange things happening. No scavenger monsters or hooded dragons. But for once in his life Swordfish had dragons he knew he could trust. Cedar, Rattlesnake, Darkseer, Vulture, Delta and Savanna.

Although there were no killings, Rattlesnake and Savanna created a list of suspects if Sunny and the other teachers were right, and the killer was one of the students in the two new winglets. "Frigid, Scaleslasher and Scorch." Read Rattlesnake to Swordfish and the others inside the prey center. "Frigid is just plain weird, Scaleslasher is violent, as we saw in the library," Darkseer nodded. "And Scorch is a Scarlet supporter."

There was a small silence before Cedar said, "Well, why would she be killing dragons for Scarlet? Isn't Scarlet dead?"

Now there was more silence in the prey center, Cedar had said that a bit loud and now dragons were looking at them. Then a voice replied. "Oh yeah she's dead." Swordfish turned around to see Blizzard. The strangely quiet Icewing. The only dragon in his winglet that had stayed a complete stranger. "All of you see me after our next class. By the uppermost classroom with the leaf ceiling." She turned swiftly and walked away. Her expression cold, yet looking very forced.

"What kind of Icewing says 'Oh yeah?'" Cedar asked. Swordfish stared after her, puzzled. Everything else had been so pressing, Swordfish had stopped paying attention to Blizzard. He had only heard her talk three times. When she introduced herself on the first day so pretentiously, when she got Darkseer to try and find the killer when they were locked in the library, and now.

After the class Swordfish's winglet had with Sunny in the uppermost classroom, Blizzard walked up to the rest of the winglet. The first time she had ever willingly done something with the rest of her winglet. There was a dragon from every tribe outside the classroom. _Except a Rainwing_. Swordfish thought, and then caught Blizzard looking at him oddly. Her eyes seemed curious, yet Swordfish caught a flicker of something else. _Fear?_

His thoughts were interrupted by Delta and Savanna arriving. "Alright Blizzard, why did you wanna see us?" Savanna asked, stopping Delta from talking first and attracting attention with her loud voice. Blizzard simply waited for Sunny to exit the classroom, and then went in herself. The dragonets followed her in, confused. She turned around, another blank expression forced on her face. "Scarlet is dead. I know she is. I was in the hunt for Prince Winter." Swordfish sighed mentally. Great. Another retelling of the Tragedy of Prince Winter.

"It all started a few hours before The Diamond Trial. Prince Winter and Prince Hailstorm were going to enter the cave, and only one would emerge. It was an honor thing." Blizzard paused, and then added, "Something you wouldn't understand, and something I shouldn't be telling a _Nightwing_ about." Once again, appearing forced. Like she was really trying to be one of those snobby Icewing aristocrats. But nobody batted an eye, even Darkseer, who she had been addressing. _Odd_. Swordfish thought.

"Anyhow, Winter and Hailstorm's parents went to retrieve Winter from his room, but he was not there. Lookouts then alerted Queen Glacier that a Nightwing was spotted running away with the prince. Then the chase began. The Nightwings were going to steal another Icewing prince."

Swordfish remembered the story of Darkstalker's parents, Prince Arctic and Foeslayer. How there were notable contradictions in the various versions. The Icewings still claimed that Foeslayer stole Arctic away for his power, while Nightwing scrolls claim Foeslayer and Arctic fell in love, and Arctic willingly abandoned his tribe.

"We later found out that Moonwatcher had entered and escaped by simply hopping across icebergs in the water to go around our protective barrier." Blizzard continued. "Glacier ordered an attack on the Nightwing villages in the Rainforest. I was part of that attack."

Darkseer for once lived up to his name, glaring darkly out the window. _He must remember it_. Swordfish realized. It must have been a scary sight, your tribe's 2,000 year old enemy suddenly descending on your new, exposed home.

"We attempted to scare Moonwatcher out of where we thought she was hiding. Glacier herself was leading this attack. We blew frostbreath over homes, threatened to kill dragonets. We knew it seemed too much, but a few dragonets dying might be worth stopping another Darkstalker." Savanna made a small, snorting noise. "We continued to scare the Nightwings, but Moonwatcher never revealed herself. It was then, a helpful Nightwing named Obsidian told us the truth. Moonwatcher had gone to Jade Mountain Academy. We went to leave, when a lone dragon attempted to stop us. It was Moonwatcher's mother, Secretkeeper. 'You're not going to hurt my diamond.' She told us, tears in her eyes. 'She is not a bad dragon.' Glacier told her to step aside, but she refused."

Blizzard paused, and then continued, her voice quieter. "Lots of dragons at this school hate me for what happened, but I was only following my orders. I had been hiding behind a tree, ready to strike anyone who may try to escape, and now Secretkeeper was in front of the tree. The general whistled a command. The kill was clean cut."

Swordfish now felt more in danger around Blizzard. She had killed somebody. The mother of Moonwatcher's blood was on Blizzard's claws. Then a realization struck Swordfish. He turned to see Rattlesnake was looking at him with a worrisome expression. Was she thinking the same as him? _Was Blizzard the killer?_ She didn't strike him as 'evil,' but would she kill for someone else?

Blizzard continued. "We went to Jade Mountain, but the Dragonets of Destiny quickly informed us that Moonwatcher and the rest of the Jade Winglet except for Turtle of the Seawings and Peril of the Skywings had left school. Thus began our hunt for the Jade Winglet. But unknown to us, others were hunting them as well. Ex-Queen Scarlet and her Rainwing ally, Chameleon. We eventually went to Possibility. A town on the border of the Sandwing and Skywing kingdoms."

Everyone knew what came next, but Blizzard still recited it. "We arrived at Possibility to find Prince Winter waiting for us. He told us everything. Moonwatcher had revealed to him that she had mind reading and prophecy, and she was dangerous. She had also been communicating with Darkstalker and was hoping to free him from wherever he was. He had promised justice, security and peace and had gained her support. Winter told us with tears in his eyes. He had loved her, but she was evil. He begged for forgiveness."

"He had killed her."

Everyone knew the story, yet it still was shocking. Winter had loved her so much, yet he found her too dangerous. He killed her because he thought it would protect Pyrrhia.

"He told us that his friend Qibli was still around, but we never found him. At that same time, many dragons crossed paths. Peril and Turtle had come, but so had Scarlet and Chameleon. Chameleon used his scroll parts to become his Nightwing form and attacked Winter. Winter did not survive. Peril attacked Scarlet by setting off many dragonflame cacti. Scarlet did not survive that. Neither did Chameleon. Turtle nearly died. Nobody ever saw Qibli again. Many, many innocent dragons died, and all the information about Darkstalker was released to the public. But I know for a fact, Scarlet is dead. I saw her charred body. Limp. Lifeless."

Blizzard stood up. "That is all. Scorch can't be killing for Scarlet because Scarlet is dead." There was a long pause. "Well, that was it. Go on ahead." Blizzard said briskly.

One by one, the dragonets left the room, but Blizzard stayed behind. Swordfish was the last to go. He was almost out the door when Blizzard said "Hold on Swordfish." Swordfish turned around to see her. She relaxed her face, scrapping the forced snobby look. "Do you know why I told you that story?" Swordfish looked at her. "No." He replied. She sat back down. "You seem more observant than most. I told you that story because I myself was too curious. I volunteered to go on that attack because of my curiosity. Now I wish I had never gone. Never taken a life." She looked back at Swordfish. She didn't look like a snobby aristocratic Icewing anymore. The forced look was gone. Her eyes were rather soft and had a kindness to them. "Don't go digging too deep Swordfish."

Swordfish nodded. _Why is she telling me this?_ He thought. Swordfish left the room, and snuck a quick look back to see that she was still looking at him. But there was something else on his mind. _If it can't be Scorch, then Frigid or Farseer._ He went back to his room to see Cedar already trying to go to sleep. Swordfish lay down on his new, neat bed and tried to go to sleep, but all he could think about was unanswered questions. _Where did Qibli go? How did Darkstalker get Moon's full support? Where even is Darkstalker? Who is the killer? Will somebody die tonight? What is Blizzard's story? WHAT ABOUT RAINFALL'S CHEST? WHO IS VINE?_ Swordfish worried himself to sleep.

 _ **Long time, no see. Let's change perspectives, shall we?**_

Scorch lay in her bed of rocks. Her father's death still echoing through her mind. It was years ago, when Scarlet had her father killed, but it still resonated through her. _Scarlet was a good queen_. Her brain told her. _Your father was a traitor._ He had done something to make Scarlet mad. Scorch's mother tried to tell her, but Scorch had been too young to understand, and she still didn't. _"Your father joined a cult."_ Her mother's voice echoed through her head. _"Like the Talons of Peace?"_ She had asked. _"No. Something worse."_ Her father's death had been just. He was evil.

Scorch then heard a scraping noise. She looked around. Typhoon was still asleep. But there was a strange shadow being cast across the room. That of a dragon. "Hello?" Scorch called out quietly. "Shhhhhhh." A voice whispered back. "Do not be afraid. I have come to free you." The dragonet stepped forward. "You don't have to worry about anything anymore." The dragon was upon her.

Scorch felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked down to see a silver blade.

Then she was gone.


	13. Winglet 2: Brotherhood

**Alternate Winglet 2: Brotherhood.**

Cedar trudged through the debris. It must have been an odd sight, such a young dragonet, wandering through the destroyed town. Cedar had a piece of cloth wrapped around his snout, so that he wouldn't breathe anything in, yet he still coughed from the smoke. Up ahead there was a large bonfire, where a group Mudwings were burning two dead dragons in a pile of debris. One of the Mudwings started crying, and collapsed into the side of another, larger one. The large one began patting the crying one's head, a faraway look in his eyes. Cedar continued walking.

He made his way into the downtown. A lone vendor stood outside his shop, his various rugs on display, but nobody was paying any attention. He walked past a broken window, the inside of the building still blackened and burned. Inside the building, a dead Seawing lay there, her ribcage exposed. The bones were just as blackened as the rest of her, her mouth open in an eternal scream.

All around the town, dragonets his age were wandering around. Entire groups of sibs, too young to understand what had happened. Some little dragonets were all alone, wandering around. One kept calling out names. "Ochre? Chestnut? Alligator?" Cedar realized those must be the names of the dragonet's sibs, and he could not find them. And he probably never would. Suddenly, Cedar didn't feel so out of place.

Cedar began to itch all over. All this pain around him, yet a voice told Cedar not to give up hope, or become depressed. _They're in a better place now. They're in the sea._ Cedar's big wings, Delta, had told him a story a long time ago, how when good dragons died, they went to a great big nice place. "How big?" Cedar had asked her. "Very big." She had replied. "Like the sea?" He had asked. Delta laughed. "Yeah. Like that."

Cedar walked through a large pile of debris that blocked a street. Hopping over wood, dirt, metal, and something else. His talon landed in a brown liquid. Cedar smelled his talon. It was alcohol. _This must have been a tavern._ He thought. Cedar followed the trail of liquid down through the mess of the tavern, when his eyes fell on a talon.

Cedar reeled back. He wasn't expecting that. He shivered and then continued. He hopped down from the pile when he heard a noise. He turned around.

The talon was shaking. Whoever had been buried was still alive. Cedar rushed over to the talon. He felt it. It was warm. "Hold on, I'm getting you out!" Cedar called to the dragon crushed under the remains of the tavern. Cedar knocked over what was left of a shelf and began to pull out pieces of debris.

When the dragonet was finally free, Cedar helped him get out. He looked shockingly like Cedar, and his scratches were minimal for someone that had just been buried underneath a building.

"What is your name?" Cedar asked him. The dragonet stared blankly for a while. "Mahogany." He finally answered. "Who are your sibs?" Cedar asked him. Mahogany almost seemed to answer, and then stopped. He stared at the sky for a second, and then looked back at Cedar. "I don't know. I don't remember." Cedar sighed sadly. "Do you remember where you are from?" He tried again. Mahogany stared at him. "I don't know." Mahogany was wearing an earring. It was golden, and it featured two dragons, entwined around each other. Mahogany saw Cedar staring and his claw shot up to his ear, as if he was going to try and cover it.

Cedar walked to the Oceanside of the town. _Amnesia._ Cedar thought. Mahogany may never be able to remember his life. _Would he be better off dead?_ Cedar thought. _No._ Thought another part of his brain. _He may never be able to remember his past, but we can make up for that with a better future._ Cedar stopped itching. Yes. He would help give this dragonet a better future.

Cedar walked back to Mahogany. Mahogany was no longer wearing an earring, and Cedar couldn't see it anywhere. A bit odd and confusing, but Cedar knew one thing.

 _This dragonet is not going to the sea._


	14. Chapter 12: Memories

**The story will now change drastically from this point on. I will attempt much longer chapters. I was covering only little bits of things for each chapter, now I will try and go much further in each chapter.**

It was disgusting.

Scorch's entire front torso had been cut open straight down the middle. The cut was not well made, as if whoever had done it had been shaking while cutting. Her blood was leaking onto her ruby red scales which created an interesting shade of red. Her mouth was slightly open, a look of shock in her eyes. Typhoon, her clawmate, had gotten all the dragonets in the Amber and Amethyst winglets to look at the murder. Swordfish looked at the dragons in the room. Rattlesnake, Cedar, Darkseer, Vulture, Blizzard, Delta, Savanna, Frigid, Farseer and Typhoon herself. The killer was among them. _So, that leaves Frigid and Farseer._ Swordfish thought. Scorch was no longer a suspect.

Typhoon stared at the body and then back at the dragonets. "Whoever did this is _sick._ In the _head._ " She snarled. "I was under the impression you hated Scorch." Rattlesnake pointed out. "Didn't you pin her down in the library that time?" Typhoon knocked over a scroll rack. "You shut your mouth!"

What happened next was a blur. The teachers came in again, and one by one, the dragonets were escorted the library again. Cedar began having a panic attack, his claws trembling and his tail lashing. Swordfish and Rattlesnake tried their hardest to calm him. "They're gonna think it's you Swordfish! Savanna already suspects you!" Cedar looked up at the roof and began to tap his claws on the library floor, making a tapping noise that made Starflight tilt his head. It made a _tick tick tick._ Just like the branch outside Swordfish and Cedar's cave. "What if they think _I'm_ the killer? I know I'm a little… _different_ , but I would never…" Cedar trailed off, a faraway look in his eyes. Rattlesnake awkwardly patted his shoulder. "They aren't going to think it's you, Cedar." Cedar wiped a single tear from his eye. "But what will happen to the school?" He asked. As if on cue, the rest of the teachers walked into the library. The dragonets of destiny, Fatespeaker and Webs, all staring at the students sternly. Silence fell across the room.

Sunny was the first to talk. "I'm sure you all saw how Scorch was killed." There was silence among the dragonets. "It was the same way Ostrich was killed." She continued. "Cut open in a line, top to bottom." There was more silence. Tsunami looked furious at something, and it took Swordfish a second to realize that she was looking at _him_. Clay was trying to comfort her. _Three moons DO they think it's me?_ Sunny began talking again. "If our suspicions are correct, and we think they are, the killer is among you dragonets. But now, one of your own has been killed." Sunny closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Starflight awkwardly twined his tail around hers. "The school… may close." Sunny said solemnly.

Swordfish was not surprised. After what happened last year with Moonwatcher and Prince Winter, and now all of the current events, what queen would want to send their tribe's dragonets to a place like this?

"We will begin interrogations of each one of you." Sunny said, and then abruptly turned to Swordfish. "Swordfish, please go with Clay and Tsunami." _Oh no._ Swordfish thought. _They think it's me._ Webs gave him a curious look, and Swordfish realized that Webs had been watching him too. Not angrily, like Tsunami, but like he was watching an interesting animal. Swordfish noticed the weird feeling Webs' eyes gave him. How Webs kept watching him even after Swordfish was looking back at him as Clay and Tsunami escorted him out of the room.

They went to the empty music room, the various instruments sitting in the dark. Clay lit a torch and lit the room temporarily. "Alright Swordfish, tell us about you." Tsunami began, pushing down her anger. Swordfish studied the forced neutral look on Tsunami's face and the anxious look on Clay's face. _Alright, this could be worse. Clay still looks like he would believe me._ "I was born to a guard at Queen Coral's palace named Urchin. I don't remember my mother and my father never talked about her. My brother, Starfish, stopped Anemone." Swordfish faltered when he saw the look on Tsunami's face. _Oh right. Her sister._ "I- I'm sorry about that by the way." Swordfish tried. Clay twined his tail around Tsunami's as her face did some weird stuff. "My- my father was addicted to seaweed and didn't pay much attention to me. Or my brother until after the massacre." Swordfish continued. "And the dragons in the town didn't like me much either. Or more, they thought I was weird. Apparently my mother had been a guard too, and that would make me the only dragon in my family that wasn't a guard."

Swordfish was thinking back to his house in the ocean, and he began to explain how he used to live. How the town had always had a dark green-ish light cast over it. How poor the town was in general. Swordfish used to leave the school the Seawings had in the area, and then go be with the other dragonets whose parents didn't care. There was a small coral reef he used to go explore with a dragonet named Snail. Not the same Snail that was at Jade Mountain, a different one. They would go and collect…

Swordfish realized he was drawing a blank on what they collected. Tsunami began to look at him weirdly.

"Is there anything else you would like to tell us?" Clay asked, but Swordfish was slightly panicking. It just hit him. He had told them all his memories, yet everything already seemed incomplete. Like he only had a few memories. The basic stuff, his brother stopping Anemone, and the coral reef. _I can't remember anything else._ He realized with a jolt of terror.

Clay and Tsunami looked at each other with worried expressions. "Come on, talk to us." Tsunami said urgently. Swordfish looked at them, scared. "I- I don't… I don't remember anyth-thing else." He stuttered out. Tsunami looked at him skeptically. "You don't remember anything other than what you told us?" Swordfish put his claws above his eyes. _If I can't remember things… then how do_ _ **I**_ _know I didn't do it? What if I'm a killer and I don't even know?_ Judging by the look on Tsunami's face, she was thinking the same thing.

The music room seemed to get darker as the torch began to burn out. Swordfish could imagine things in the dark. A serial killer on the drums. A scavenger monster on the harp, ready to stop playing and shoot him dead on the spot. Hooded dragons with golden armbands, all playing maracas, baring their teeth at him aggressively. And the giant, nightmarish thing from his dreams, towering over all the instruments, its enormous talons outstretched to grab him.

Swordfish was very scared, he decided.

When he was back in the library, Swordfish took out the scroll he took from Rainfall's table. He examined the map of Possibility with the red marks. But his mind was somewhere else. _These days at Jade Mountain have been clearer than any others_. _Why would some of my memories be clearer than others?_ He looked over to see Vulture reading a scroll. _I can't even remember how… how I got to Jade Mountain. It's like that first day when Rattlesnake teleported was the first part of a story. Like from a scroll…_

Swordfish suddenly shot up from where he was sitting, his wings flared open. Blizzard gave him an odd look. He sat back down, his mind racing. He had remembered something. A sentence somebody had once said to him. " _ **Hello, main character.**_ "

 _What if… I'm in something like a story? What if none of this is real? That would explain everything! Nobody reacted when Rattlesnake just appeared in the history class. The whole weird Vine thing in that same day, how Webs said Vine was right there, I blacked out and then Webs said there was no Vine._

Is that what was in Rainfall's chest? If only they could find Sloth the scavenger. Swordfish thought back to when he first saw the scavenger, Typhoon had tried to eat him. At first, Swordfish didn't care that much if Rainfall's scavenger pet got killed, but now he was so glad that Typhoon had not eaten the key to the potential answers to everything. Swordfish's train of thought was interrupted by Cedar returning from interrogation, bags under his eyes. "How was it?" Swordfish asked him quietly. Cedar plopped down next to him. "Awful." He whispered. Swordfish twined his tail around Cedar's. Something he scarcely did. "Tsunami just kind of yelled at me and Clay just stood there." Cedar shook. "I hate people getting angry at me. I told them about Mahogany dying. It was… not a pleasant time." Cedar was silent for a moment while Clay escorted Delta out of the library for questioning. "When I found Mahogany, he was wearing an earring exactly like Rattlesnake's. Golden, with two dragons entwined around each other. I walked out to go look out at the ocean. When I returned to Mahogany, he wasn't wearing the earring anymore. I never saw it again." Cedar turned and looked at Swordfish. "I've never told anybody that." He whispered. "Not even my sibs. I didn't think it was important."

Swordfish considered telling Cedar something he hadn't told anybody. His theory that the world was fake. But judging on how quiet the library was, and how that would make him look crazy, and possibly more suspicious, he decided against it. _Not yet, anyway._ He thought to himself. His theory included that he was the only one in the world that actually could think, and Swordfish could easily imagine the others thinking that a dragon who thought he was the only real one in the world would be a delusional killer.

Swordfish sat in the silence, quietly looking at Rainfall's drawings, now looking at the smiling Icewing again. Starflight sat in the center of the library at his table with Sunny and Fatespeaker, talking in hushed whispers. Webs sat alone, observing the dragonets in silence. Swordfish wondered to himself. _I wonder what made the teachers suspect_ me _of all dragons._ But it didn't take Swordfish long to find Savanna looking at him anxiously as well. Just as Swordfish had thought, Savanna had tipped the teachers off that he suspected Swordfish. _Thanks Savanna._

Cedar suddenly jerked his head up. "What?" Swordfish asked in a hushed voice. "I just got an idea." He responded. His claws were quietly tapping again, and Cedar was itching all over, like a nervous twitch. "I think I know who the killer is!" He whispered loudly. Cedar got up and walked over to Rattlesnake, who was half asleep. Swordfish was right behind him. "Rattlesnake." Cedar called quietly, poking her shoulder. "Hm?" She said when she woke up. "You've known Savanna for a long time, right? You were Outclaws together, right?" He whispered in his quick, excited-but-nervous voice. "Yeah. He was the best weapon wielder the Outclaws had at the end there. He could make his own weapons. That's why he wears that dagger necklace." Rattlesnake responded. "Well, do you think he could design a weapon specifically made for cutting dragons open? Do you think it's a coincidence that the two dragons that were murdered, were enemies of Blaze, who he now works for?" Swordfish inhaled sharply. He thought back to the day he met Savanna in the history cave, and what Savanna had said. " _I fashioned Thorn's personal spear for the attack on Burn's stronghold. I now work for Queen Blaze."_

Rattlesnake looked alarmed. "Do you really think he would do it? I've known him for years. He saved me from a thug in the Scorpion Den years ago." She whispered. Swordfish snuck a quick look back at Savanna, who was still looking at him. "I found a weapon in the hallway one time, I wonder if it's his." Cedar asked. "Well, show me it after all this. I can recognize his work. We were very close." Rattlesnake answered. That last sentence pained Swordfish. He knew it. Savanna and Rattlesnake were close.

Tsunami suddenly burst into the library. Clay and Farseer behind her, Farseer giving Tsunami a death glare. "All of you are free to go back to your rooms, except Frigid, Farseer, and Swordfish." The other dragonets filed out of the library. Swordfish watched as Savanna followed Rattlesnake and Cedar out of the cave, giving Swordfish one last look before disappearing past the doorway. _I have to protect her. If Savanna is the killer…_ It suddenly struck Swordfish that he immediately went to Rattlesnake's safety, and not Cedar's as well. Then he was in the library. Alone with Frigid, Farseer and the teachers.

Farseer gave everyone in the room an angry look, and Frigid kept staring out a window. "We have narrowed it down to you three." Tsunami said. "You will not be allowed to leave until you have proved your innocence." Sunny looked at them all. "We're really sorry, but this is for the safety of the school." But Swordfish wasn't listening. Rattlesnake and Cedar were immediate danger.

She was suddenly cut off by Swordfish getting up and running out the library door. "HEY!" Tsunami yelled. "I'm sorry!" Swordfish yelled. "I think I know who it is!" Swordfish ran and ran, taking turns to try and lose Clay and Tsunami, who were tailing him. He eventually leapt out of an open window by the art cave and began flying outside of the academy.

 _Ok, so the art cave is there… that means that my cave would be… to the left._ Swordfish began to fly left, flying as fast as he could. He passed over the small trees below, looking out for any sign of a scavenger monster, as that was the woods Swordfish saw it come out of before Rainfall was killed.

One by one, the leaf windows of the student caverns came into view. Swordfish began to look for the branch that would tap. Adrenaline coursed through him when he saw it come into view, the branch looking like a claw, tapping the window, asking to be let in.

Swordfish landed right outside. The branch made the noise again. _Tick… tick… tick…_ Swordfish lifted up a corner of the leaf. Inside, Cedar and Rattlesnake were talking.

"I know it seems a little crazy, and it's probably not right." Cedar was saying, itching all over himself. "But I'll show you the weapon." Cedar pulled out the small trunk of belongings he brought with him to Jade Mountain Academy. Cedar paused, and drew a shaky breath.

There was a small silence before Rattlesnake said "Well, show me!" Swordfish peeled back the leaf a little further. Cedar suddenly looked back at Rattlesnake, a strange grin spread over his face. "I always liked you." He said. "And now you will be in the big sea in the sky."

Swordfish screamed as Cedar turned around, slashing the weapon, a dagger designed for precise and short kills. Slashing it across Rattlesnake's chest, the blood as red as Scorch's scales.


	15. Chapter 13: Blade

It couldn't be true. _It couldn't be true._

But it was.

Rattlesnake fell to the ground, blood seeping from the cut. She coughed and looked up at Cedar, a mixture of pain, confusion, and anger in her eyes. She attempted to speak but all that came out was a gargling sound.

Swordfish ripped through the leaf window before he even knew what fully happened. He shrieked and tackled Cedar. The two knocked into Swordfish's new neat bed. Swordfish swiped his claw across Cedar's face, scratching him under his right eye. He saw the crazed look in Cedar's eyes, but also the emptiness inside. Cedar no longer looked like Cedar, but a killer without conscience, one that murders Mudwings in a burning village.

Cedar suddenly pushed back with strength Swordfish didn't know Cedar had. Cedar held out his dagger in front of him. "You messed up everything!" He said, his voice shaking as much as his arm. "She was going to be free!"

Cedar rushed at Swordfish with murder shining in his eyes. Swordfish panicked. But suddenly, Rattlesnake lurched forward, her eyes nearly closed. She wasn't dead. But Cedar whirled around. "You're not dead yet?" He growled, exasperated. He stomped her chest in the ground with his back talon and slashed her face with his powerful Mudwing tail. Rattlesnake flopped to the ground again, blood leaking from an ugly gash on her face as well as the slice Cedar gave her.

But the time it took for Cedar to do that allowed Swordfish to grab Cedar and disarm him, the blade falling to the ground directly below the two. Rattlesnake was dying, but if Swordfish focused on that instead of restraining Cedar, he would kill them both. Swordfish used how small Cedar was against him, pushing him into the bed. Only then did Swordfish start to cry. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?" He screamed. It didn't make sense. _Cedar was the killer._ Cedar. His clawmate. His first friend at the academy. The one he could trust the most. The one who had helped to look for the killer. "You killed Scorch AND Ostrich! You were the killer and betrayed us in so many ways." Cedar stared at him, emotionless. "Well of course." He said, and only now did Swordfish realize how different his voice was. Instead of the nervous, quick-talking voice he normally had, Cedar was speaking in a sharp, slower voice. Almost raspy, giving it a nasty metal-on-metal-like quality.

"I can't be imprisoned when I'm trying to liberate everyone." Cedar replied. Swordfish stared at him "Liberate? Is that what you call killing?" Swordfish shook Cedar, keeping track of how much time had passed since Rattlesnake had been stabbed. Cedar had to be suppressed before he could help her. "I trusted you." Swordfish felt a teardrop drip off his head. Cedar simply looked him in the eyes. "It's quite simple. The other me is not the true me. I protect him and he does not know it. I do what he was born to do. Sadly enough, he does not remember, and his memories of me get blurred. I come to him as an itch, telling him what to do. I am him, and he is me. Yet he does not know it." Cedar shook his head. "What a sad creature."

 _Split personality._ Swordfish realized. He had heard about it. A "disorder" of sorts that creates multiple personalities within one dragon. Sometimes, the memories do not carry over from one personality to another.

Swordfish was still taking careful notice of how much time was going by. He knew Rattlesnake was bleeding out, but he couldn't take his eyes off Cedar. This was also his one chance to get vital answers. He felt his heart pounding, the branch outside now as loud as he had ever heard it. _TICK… TICK… TICK…_

"Well then, what was Cedar 'born to do'? Are you with those hooded dragons?" Cedar looked exasperated again, as if he was trying to explain something to a one-year old dragonet. "No, I don't know who those dragons were. But Cedar's purpose is also simple as well. When something dies, they are freed. And they go to the big sea in the sky. It's very big you know." Swordfish was confused, and he must have looked it because Cedar sighed. "This world is torture." He explained. "To escape it, you must go through its worst pain, and then you are free. That is why I open up the body of those I free. So their souls can escape. The soul is much more important than the physical body." Cedar looked almost calm. "And that is his- _our_ purpose in this world."

 _Ok._ Swordfish thought. _So this "killer" personality is totally delusional._ "Of course, if you really did see that scene of the burning village, I can guess that you already know that Mahogany was someone I freed as well." Cedar said, giving him a psychotic smile. Cedar was right. Swordfish had guessed that. The killer in the vision was Cedar. Their eyes had the same cold emptiness to them. Cedar had killed his adoptive brother and best friend. "So," Cedar continued. "Will you help me fulfill my duty?"

Swordfish gave him a disgusted look. "No!" He cried. "Why not?" Cedar asked, genuinely surprised. "Because you're wrong! Death is renowned as being a bad thing!" Swordfish replied. But a scary part of his brain wondered. " _What if he's right?"_ "Tsk." Cedar said, his voice like a knife scratching against rock. "I was really hoping we could free Rattlesnake together. You seem to really like her." Swordfish's mind was freaking out. _GO CHECK ON HER! HELP HER!_ _ **RATTLESNAKE IS DYING!**_ But Cedar would surely kill both him and Rattlesnake together. "So you're not going to help me." Cedar slowly said. "Shame." And then moved at lightning speed.

Swordfish had been so distracted with interrogating Cedar he failed to notice Cedar's lowermost claw had been trying to grab the dagger he had lost. But now he had gotten it. Cedar's bottom claw flipped the blade upwards and he caught it. Swordfish immediately felt the pain as Cedar sliced his chest with the dagger, as he had done with Rattlesnake. Swordfish swiped at Cedar with his wing as he fell, but Cedar ripped through his wing with the dagger, tearing a massive hole in it. Swordfish collapsed. The room began to spin upside down, the pain was arcing across Swordfish's whole body. Swordfish stared up at Cedar, who was peering over him. "What a shame." He said. "I wanted you to be one of the last, Swordfish." Cedar held the dagger under Swordfish's throat. His voice was soft now, like a whisper, but still sharp. "Be free, Swordfish."

Suddenly, a rush of dragons outside interrupted Cedar. Cedar's face contorted in a weird way. "Hold on you two, I'll free you later, Cedar's got to go be somewhere." He whispered. Cedar picked up Swordfish and lay him on his bed and then did the same with Rattlesnake, laying her on his own bed. Swordfish stared dizzily at Rattlesnake, a dying Sandwing on a bed of mud. Where had he seen that before?

Swordfish's vision started to go black. _Have… to...save…Rattlesnake…Need…get…h e l p._ Swordfish blacked out.

 _Swordfish swam home, the currents sweeping along his small body. The tears were unnoticeable, as they would simply disappear in the massive amount of water of the ocean, but they were there. He arrived at his home to see his mom talking with a visitor, but she stopped when she saw how upset Swordfish was. "What's wrong?" She asked in Aquatic. Swordfish wiped away the tears when he saw the visitor was the father of a classmate. He didn't want anyone to know he was crying. "This jerk was calling Tern 'twitch' and then he beat her up after school." "What happened? Who's Tern?" asked the visitor. "Swordfish's friend." Swordfish's mother replied. She then looked at Swordfish expectantly. "Well? What happened next?"_

 _"Nothing. I came home." Swordfish replied. His mother looked stared at him, and then exploded into lights. "You just stood there and watched Tern get beaten up? What kind of friend does that?" Swordfish started to cry again. "I know you're only a small dragonet," She continued. "But you should know that you do anything for your closest friends, especially don't let them get hurt."_

The memory began to burn away, like paper burning. Swordfish had forgotten it already, but one thing stuck with him. " _You should know that_ _you do anything for your closest friends, especially don't let them get hurt."_ No. Swordfish was not going to lie here and die and let Rattlesnake die too, and let Cedar hurt and kill more. Cedar. His best friend.

Swordfish used the initial rush of adrenaline to lift himself off the bed. He immediately felt dizzy, and almost fell back down, but as his head bobbed down, he saw Rattlesnake, and he had to keep going. Swordfish lurched himself out of his room, and into the hallway, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Swordfish had made it out ten steps before he promptly puked as his systems began to falter. Swordfish made one more step before falling to the ground. His eyes focused on a pebble, small and brown. Swordfish could relate to that pebble more than any hero in a scroll right now. Small and just waiting for something to step on him. Swordfish's vision began to go black again, this time, something like snow began to appear in his vision as well.

" _Do anything for your closest friends."_

The memory came and went just as fast. Swordfish suddenly croaked out loud. "My mother… is gone… stop imagine… things..." But that mantra appeared again. Swirling around in his thoughts. Swordfish remembered feeling more at home than he had ever felt, those days before Scorch died. Before Cedar became evil. Rattlesnake, appearing into the history class out of thin air, as if sent to comfort him by some divine force. She had been like a goddess.

Swordfish suddenly found himself picking himself up, and walking, clutching the chest wound to stop the blood loss. It was not over yet. He didn't want it to be over. He was not going to let it end yet.

 **P.o.V. Switch to Cedar.**

Cedar was walking to the prey center. But Cedar wasn't there, it was the killer personality, merely an actor at the moment. It was lunchtime, but the various livestock weren't the only things dying. Cedar smirked to himself, internally laughing at his own joke. _Alright now, I'll tell them something to pin the murder on someone else. That could definitely buy me enough time to finish freeing Rattlesnake and Swordfish._

Cedar burst into the prey center, a look of horror plastered on his face. He yelled. "SWORDFISH IS THE KILLER! HE TRIED TO KILL RATTLESNAKE!" Darkseer sat straight up from his sleep, and Savanna looked outraged. "I KNEW IT!" He screamed. The rest of the prey center erupted into chaos. Farseer was leaning against the wall, not panicking, but she had a look of surprise on her face as well. Clay sat up from where he was sitting, and ran over to Cedar. "Is she okay?" He asked, worried. He was so worried for her wellbeing, probably built into him to be caring for near strangers. _Its dragons like this that are the true scum of the earth._ Cedar thought. _They will do everything they can to make sure dragons stay imprisoned here. The only fitting punishment for these souls is to never be freed, but forced to watch as everyone they care about is freed in front of them._ "I think she's fine." Cedar replied in a forced voice.

Tsunami raced down to the prey center, and took control. "Everybody evacuate through the tunnels to the east! We will deal with this! Be warned there is a deep abyss off the side of one of the tunnels, so do not fall if you have trouble flying!" Cedar found Delta, and the rest of his sibs group. Delta was crying. "Is Rattlesnake dead?" She asked. "No. Don't worry." Cedar replied. Delta was simply misguided towards staying imprisoned. Cedar wanted to free her long ago, but the other sibs would definitely suspect him, especially Mahogany.

Cedar followed the crowd, trailing along the back, waiting for an opening to slip away and finish the job, but Delta kept a close eye on him. She probably was worried about him because he looked like Mahogany. She was probably subconsciously worried to the bone about him simply because of it. Cedar kept a close eye on her as well, waiting for her to unlock from him and the other Mudwings so he could slip away and finish the job. Cedar listened closely when he heard Savanna talking with Darkseer and Vulture behind him. "I knew it was him… He had so much to be angry at… Angry at the world, and somethin' to take it out on…" Darkseer had a solemn look on his face, as if he could only now see the futures without Rattlesnake and Swordfish.

Cedar really had to hand it to whatever divine force stopped Darkseer's powers from finding him, and whatever had stopped Turtle in his tracks with Darkstalker's scroll. Something was helping him do his job.

Cedar stared at the abyss Tsunami had mentioned as it came into view, and its vast emptiness and space made Cedar think about the future. What would he do after his two best friends were free? Would Darkseer and Vulture accept him still? Or should Cedar just leave after this, and go solo, creating a more diverse liberation. _If only I could free massive amounts at once. Entire tribes, freed all at once. Nobody left to miss anyone_. _Nobody sad._ Unfortunately, Cedar did not have that kind of power. Cedar kept thinking about the future, his mind elsewhere, not noticing the scream from the back of the line.

But Delta grabbed his shoulder and Cedar snapped back to the real world and noticed that the line of dragons behind him were moving out of the way, and some dragons had left the line completely, staying in the air above the **abyss** to get out of the **chaos**.

"It's Swordfish!" Someone yelled, and then the line began to turn into a stampede of dragons trying to escape and dragons going to fight Swordfish. "THE KILLER! THE KILLER IS HERE!" Someone else screamed. Cedar watched as Farseer suddenly descended out of nowhere, and grabbed the limp body of Swordfish, blood dripping onto the crowd below. Swordfish was breathing heavily and was mumbling something, but nobody could hear him.

Farseer threw Swordfish down to the ground in front of Savanna, who was glaring at Swordfish with malice. If Cedar was correct, Savanna also liked Rattlesnake, or at least cared a lot for her because they were both Outclaws in the past and "very close" as Rattlesnake had told him. Now, someone who had done her intense harm was down in front of him.

Darkseer also looked down, not with malice but with a grim look on his face. Had he not seen this either? Was he debating using his animus power? Vulture looked with disbelief. Delta looked with sadness. Farseer looked with anger. Cedar slapped on a pleading look. "Swordfish, please, I beg you to stop!" He cried. Swordfish mumbled again, an angry look on his face. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYIN'? YOU CACTUS-LICKING, SAND-EATING KILLER!" Savanna screamed at him. Swordfish mumbled again. Darkseer edged Savanna out of the way and bent down to hear Swordfish clearer now.

The caverns were nearly silent now, everyone focusing on the scene unfolding. Swordfish stopped breathing heavily. Darkseer looked up at Savanna, then Delta, and then narrowed his eyes at Cedar. "I could hear his mind, but I needed to be sure it was him." Darkseer announced. "Rattlesnake is alive, but she needs help. Swordfish claims he is not killer, as he himself is obviously stabbed. The real killer is Cedar."

Sunny flew off, above the crowd, most likely to get Rattlesnake. Savanna took off behind her. Cedar felt many eyes on him. Delta's grip on him tightened. Darkseer suddenly stepped back, a look of shock on his face. "I JUST HEARD HIS MIND! IT'S LIKE A RUSH OF INSANITY!" Darkseer pointed a claw at Cedar. "It IS him! I don't know why I couldn't hear it, or see it, or ANYTHING!" Delta grabbed Cedar and stared at him, her eyes wide. "Cedar…?" She asked him.

This was it. This was the end. Cedar could feel it. "May-maybe he tried to kill himself out of guilt! This is attempted suicide!" Cedar tried, but Darkseer shook his head. "No dark, suicidal thoughts in there." Suddenly, Cedar was in front of Delta. It was as if everyone else disappeared from view, all that existed was Cedar and his sister. "I-I just want to free everyone! ISN'T THAT THE PURPOSE?" Cedar dropped the normal voice act. He looked at Delta's face, and everyone else around him. All of them with looks of hurt and anger on their faces. "Cedar…" Delta asked. "Did you kill Mahogany?" "He was the first! He's in the big sea in the sky now!" Cedar shrieked. "MAYBE I CAN FREE YOU ALL TOO!"

Cedar raised his claw. "YOU WILL NOT STAY TORTURED!" He slashed at Delta, but she simply grabbed his wing, tearing away the membrane. Cedar made a scraping noise with his mouth.

Delta looked into Cedar's eyes. She was nearly crying. "I'm sorry Cedar." She managed out, and then kicked him off the ledge. Cedar tried to fly, but his wing was torn. Suddenly, Cedar felt a strange feeling. Time seemed to slow down. Cedar felt the itch disappear. He still wanted everyone to be free, but the itch was gone. The killer looked for normal, average Cedar. He was gone.

 _Huh. Looks like this was the real personality the whole time._

 **P.o.V. switch to Swordfish.**

 **One day later.**

Swordfish woke up in the hospital part of the building to see Rattlesnake leaning over him, a red scar now on her chest and her face looking quite good for someone who had just gotten it slashed open, a bandage wrapped around part of her face, but that was it. She had healed very well already. Her earring twinkled in the light. Swordfish looked down at his own chest, which had leaves over it. Only now that he looked at it did it start to hurt. "What happened to Cedar?" He asked through the stinging pain. Rattlesnake sighed.

"He was crazy. Delta pushed him off the edge of that abyss. His wing tore. There's… no way he survived. I'm sorry." She said solemnly. "Cedar is dead." Swordfish began to silently cry. His best friend was crazy, had tried to kill him AND Rattlesnake. Killed three innocent dragonets, and now was dead. "Hey Rattlesnake." He said through the tears. "I need to tell you something."

Swordfish had decided he was not going to keep secrets from her. He had realized that he didn't want to die and not let his thoughts never be known. And there was nobody he trusted more than Rattlesnake. "I think this world is fake. I think it's like a dream. I think we need to wake up. I know it sounds crazy but-" "Swordfish." Rattlesnake cut him off. Her voice was monotone, and her voice had lost its pleasant smile. "You don't have to…."

 _ **NO! STOP IT NOW! PUT HIM BACK! KILL HIM!**_

Swordfish began to cry harder when Rattlesnake's eyes turned hollow, and the world began to tear apart.

 **ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE STORY, AND ONLY NOW ARE WE AT THE BIG TURNING POINT.**

 **Strap in readers, this is only the beginning.**

 **And now, some random trivia about the story.**

 **-The current storyline is very different from how I originally planned it to be.**

 **-The top inspirations for the overall story (other than Wings of Fire itself) are Attack on Titan and Stranger Things, but there are elements from Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Walking Dead, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Rick and Morty (oddly enough).**

 **-The users that decided everything at the very beginning are as follows: Sofie-Sandwich (aka The Tea Drunk Seawing), riverflowertheimmortalwolf, Fatespeaker, Saggygua420, Solar Flare the Sandwing, Otter (he has many forms), Mt. Drew22. These users effected the story more than they know, for what they did more than a year ago has yet to have real effect.**


	16. Chapter 14: Nightmare

Swordfish screamed as Rattlesnake's eyes became dark and hollow. She raised her venomous tail to stab him. Swordfish just barely rolled off the bed before it pierced through the cot he had been resting on. The medicinal leaves fell off of Swordfish's cut and the stinging became worse as the wound was exposed to the open air. "RATTLESNAKE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He asked in a panicked yell, but Rattlesnake simply stared at him with those hollow eyes. She suddenly advanced on him, in straggly, weird steps. Like she wasn't in control of herself. She swiped at him with her claws and caught on the hole Cedar tore in his wing, and ripped it open more. Swordfish screamed in pain.

Swordfish managed to hobble out of the healing center with Rattlesnake shambling behind him. He looked back and slammed the door shut. He heard her banging on it. Swordfish collapsed to the floor and looked down at the raw, healing cut he had gotten from Cedar. _I have to go get help._ Swordfish realized. He got up and began calling out. "Help! Something's wrong with Rattlesnake!"

But instead of a friendly face, Boto, an older Rainwing student, appeared around the corner. His eyes hollow and his steps slow. Swordfish yelled at him. "HEY! WHAT IS GOING ON?" But Boto kept marching toward him, his black eyes trained on Swordfish. Swordfish got up and ran in the opposite direction, coming face to face with Vulture, his eyes blacked out too. Vulture tried to bite Swordfish but Swordfish reacted faster and pulled away. Swordfish looked around and dove into a nearby cave.

After a quick look at his surroundings, Swordfish realized he was in Clay's "weapons cave." Swordfish turned around to see Vulture lurching towards him, no emotion on his face. Swordfish ducked from Vulture's wing and grabbed the nearest weapon, a big stick. There was no time to waste. He whirled around and bashed the side of Vulture's head with the stick. Vulture dropped to the ground, a shallow wound on his cheek. Swordfish felt Vulture's chest for a pulse and was relieved to find that he didn't kill his friend.

 _But what was going on?_

Swordfish was examining the small bit of blood that was now on the end of the big stick, which was heavy so he put it down. Suddenly, a high-pitched ringing began to echo through Swordfish's ears. It was louder than anything else, but Swordfish wasn't focused on how loud it was, he was focused on the sound itself.

Swordfish flashed back to flying away from Stonemover's cave with Rainfall and the others, and hearing the intense, high-pitched ringing. Right before that thing came and killed Rainfall. The same ringing that sounded when he, Rattlesnake and Cedar had walked out of the open doors to the academy, only to see the thing bearing down on them.

It was here. _It's coming for me._ The noise suddenly stopped.

Swordfish tried to run away. He couldn't fly because of his wing. Swordfish ran as fast as his injuries allowed him, ducking into rooms whenever a dragon would pass by. Swordfish watched with horror as Starflight shambled by, walking like the others, but not even needing to run a claw along the wall. _It's like he can see._ Swordfish realized. But then again, nothing made sense anymore. He waited until Starflight had passed, and then ran in the opposite direction, towards the main entrance. He had to get away from Jade Mountain and get help somewhere else. Maybe he could go back home. Maybe he could go to the Rainforest and get help from Queen Glory.

Swordfish looked forward and saw Blizzard standing at the end of the hallway, her eyes not hollow. She was fiddling with her ear, like trying to feel something there. "Blizzard!" He cried out, but she looked at him and then ran off with speed Swordfish didn't know she had. Swordfish tried to follow her, when a voice echoed through his head. _**"Give up, Swordfish."**_ The world began to spin, and Swordfish crumpled to the ground. Swordfish felt like an invisible boulder was pinning him down, and he could only watch in horror as rips began to tear in the very world itself, and a dark figure walked out of one of the tears.

It was completely black, like something made out of shadows. Its eyes were the only thing not pitch black, they were white balls of light, sunken deep into the thing's head. It had the figure of a scavenger, yet it spoke without a mouth. _**"I'm making a logical choice to kill you off, right here, and right now."**_ It said with a voice unlike anything Swordfish had ever heard. It had an accent that he had never heard before. It was like a whisper, but felt like someone was whispering into both of Swordfish's ears at the same time. The thing reached out with its scavenger-like paw, except the tips of the paw were sharp like a claw. Swordfish couldn't move, couldn't talk. All he could do was watch as the thing reached for him. Swordfish could barely comprehend what was happening.

"Stop, Cassriel." Another voice said. Not weird and unnatural like the shadow being.

Another strange figure walked out of another tear. Beyond this tear, Swordfish could see a desert. Like it was a gate to somewhere else. The new figure had a scavenger-like shape too, but was dressed in robes and a hood that covered its face. _**"What do you want Abyss? Shouldn't you be somewhere that needs you? I can handle a dragonet on my own, he's not even canonical."**_ The shadow thing apparently named Cassriel said. Swordfish had no idea what was going on. But the one named Abyss looked down at Swordfish, and then turned to Cassriel again. "That's my point." Abyss said. "Don't waste energy on him at all, just continue to make the world itself kill him as it collapses." Abyss picked up a rock off the floor of the academy and watched it crumble and turn into another small tear. "Besides, the King wants your experiments to stop being so large and extravagant." Cassriel looked at Abyss for a second. _**"What do**_ **you** _ **know about the King? Of all people, you should have the least knowledge about his plans."**_ "Shh! don't talk like that next to him!" Abyss said urgently, gesturing to Swordfish, was still pinned to the ground, his head trying to decipher what was going on. _The King? Experiments? People?_ _ **"Yes, I apologize. The less he knows, the better."**_ Cassriel said in his snake-like voice. He turned around, and where his mouth should have been split open, making a strange, mouth-like hole. And it was smiling. A grin of insane joy.

" _ **Goodbye, main character."**_ Cassriel whispered to Swordfish, and then walked back through the rip he came out of. It closed behind him.

Abyss turned to your viewpoint. "And the less YOU know the better, as well. And yes, I am talking to you." He walked back into the tear leading into the desert, also closing his behind himself.

Swordish gasped when he was able to breathe again, and he stood up, his mind reeling from what he had just saw. He hardly had time to process it when Starflight appeared behind him. He had turned back and was now shambling forward like a drunk, his claw reaching for Swordfish. Swordfish got up, and headed in the direction he saw Blizzard run off to. At first, he ran, but as his wounds began to hurt again, he fell to the floor, gasping for air. He watched, uncomprehending as more little tears into an inky blackness began to show themselves. _What… is…going…on?_ He thought to himself, asking nobody in particular, because he knew nobody would answer.

Swordfish crawled forward, gritting his teeth with pain as the cut on his chest dragged on the floor. He had to escape Jade Mountain before the other dragons here killed him. Then he could go and try to figure out what exactly was going on. Swordfish was rounding a corner, when he felt talons grab him from the behind. He twisted around to see Starflight had caught up with him. He tried to struggle away but Starflight dug his claws into Swordfish's flesh. Swordfish yelled out in pain. "BLIZZARD! I SAW YOU THERE! HELP ME!"

Starflight slashed at Swordfish's face and Swordfish could immediately taste the blood, but Starflight was very slow. Whatever was making the dragons do this made them slow, shambling, dark-eyed monsters. Swordfish acted without thinking, and through the piercing pain he slashed at Starflight's throat. He felt Starflight's grip loosen on him as he fell to the ground, dropping Swordfish with him. He watched with horror as he saw Starflight's body stop moving. _I… killed Starflight._ He thought to himself, but the horror took on a new shape as the body deteriorated into more rips and tears in the world, looking less and less like Starflight and more like a blob of blackness, until it was gone completely.

Swordfish limped slowly back towards the direction of Blizzard once again, calling out faintly. "Blizzard? I just saw you… please help…" Nothing answered. There were no sounds of other students emanating out from the cavern walls, no music being played in the music cave, not even a sound. You could hear a mouse die in the silence. Swordfish began to think in the silence. _"The less he knows the better"… Are those things, Cassriel and Abyss, are they divine beings? Have I gotten to close to figuring out something mortals shouldn't know? Am I about to die here, with this world collapsing on me like Abyss said? And who else did he talk to?_

 _Who else is here with me?_

Swordfish rounded a corner, struggling to stand upright, and walked into the prey center, which was swarmed with dragons. Only none of them had eyes. Swordfish screamed as a Skywing student whirled around and grabbed him. "NO! NO! NO!" He shrieked as the Skywing held him in place as all the other dragons there came for him. No expressions on their faces. There was Darkseer, Vulture, Frigid, Delta, Clay, Kinkajou, Turtle, and many other dragons from the school, all with dead looks and no eyes.

The Skywing, which Swordfish had now identified as Flame, held him there, digging his claws into Swordfish's chest. Swordfish could hardly breathe. He suddenly felt a pain on his tail, as another dragon started clawing at the scales on it. Swordfish was going to die, right now. All the other injuries were there already, and Darkseer already was biting the tip of Swordfish's wing. _I… HAVE… TO… GET… AWAY…_ Swordfish used one last burst of energy to take off, into the air.

The dragons didn't follow him, just stared with their blank, dark eyes. Like they had forgotten how to do anything except breathe, walk, and kill Swordfish. Swordfish flew as much as his wing injury would allow him. He flew up, and then fell down, tilting to the left. He just narrowly missed falling right into Clay's outstretched arms, before flying up again.

Swordfish was bleeding profusely now, and he could feel his life force draining along with his energy. He could feel the weight of everything pushing him down, his vision blurring, but fear of the dragons below was the only thing keeping him up at this point. The tears in the world were becoming more frequent, and Swordfish had to dodge them, for he did not know what would happen if he flew into one.

Swordfish was looking for the evacuation route where he had revealed Cedar, and hope washed over his body when he saw it. Swordfish began to fly at a downward angle. _If I can just make it to that tunnel, I can get out of here._ When Tsunami suddenly sprang up.

She didn't fly, but she jumped high enough to take her claws and slice Swordfish's back left talon off. Swordfish screamed and crashed into the entrance to the tunnel, pain arcing from the wound. The pain was not even centralized there, all the wounds hurt. Even his mysterious scars felt fresh. Swordfish stared at the bleeding wrist with horror. This was very, very bad. Swordfish could have sworn he heard a distressed voice call out his name, but he was too dizzy to comprehend. But the eyeless dragons kept shambling after him, their black eyes not showing any signs of empathy.

Swordfish crawled away, not using his back claw. He no longer knew what was pushing him forward. He knew he would probably die before getting help. Either from his wounds or from the Jade Mountain dragons. But he kept trying to escape. Was it the longing for the truth about everything? Was it the hope that he would be able to rescue Rattlesnake and everyone else from whatever had done this? Was it a need to do something worthwhile to prove himself to his family and everyone else back home that he could not remember?

But when Swordfish had crawled to about halfway through the tunnel, on the path running alongside the abyss, he completely collapsed. He could not move on any longer. He could not see himself saving Rattlesnake. He could not see himself ever returning home a hero as his brother Starfish had. Swordfish could only stare at a small rip in the world ahead of him. He remembered Blizzard's words to him. _"Don't go digging too deep."_ That's exactly what Swordfish had done. Those things, Cassriel and Abyss, had come to kill him for getting too close to whatever this world was hiding. There was no future, he couldn't see one. All there was, was the black emptiness Swordfish saw in the tear ahead of him.

But Swordfish made one last decision. He was not going to let Cassriel and Abyss kill him. This was something of his own choice. Swordfish could hear the dragons without eyes coming from the other end of the tunnel, but they were not going to kill him. Swordfish felt his vision start to go black. He heard the voice of an old dragon in his head, telling him to stop, and to keep going. Telling him to combat the bad thoughts.

Swordfish rolled off the edge of the abyss, the air whistling through the hole in his wing. Cassriel was not going to take him alive.

 _Huh. Guess I'll end up freed with Cedar anyway._

 **Well, that was the end. I told you this was a dark story. I normally planned for there to be way more chapters but I decided for a short, clean ending. Yeah, there's a lot of questions still left unanswered, but whatever.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	17. Error: null

Swordfish skidded to a halt on a smooth surface. _I'm alive? I was sure that height would have killed me._ Swordfish opened his eyes to see that he was surrounded by darkness, except for the ground, which was a glass-like substance. Through the glass, Swordfish could see the Rainforest far down below him. _Where… am I? Am I dead?_

Swordfish looked behind him to see one of the rips, except this one didn't lead into darkness, it lead back to the tunnel he had been escaping through. Swordfish could see the abyss through it. Swordfish watched as the rip suddenly closed up, leaving Swordfish to start looking around.

There were various orb-like things suspended around the blackness, all with different images and scenes held inside of them, like a window into some other place. But through all of that, Swordfish noticed a pale green blob, floating around in the darkness.

When he got up to go investigate, he noticed none of his wounds hurt. They hadn't healed, but they didn't feel bad or anything. Even his lost claw had no pain to it at all. _What IS this?_ Swordfish wondered.

Swordfish got up, and flew through the darkness, his wings now working for some reason, despite the hole. As he got closer to the blob, he realized it was a dragonet. A Rainwing. An idea hit Swordfish like lightning.

He moved up to her. She had scars on her like his mysterious ones, only these were open. Her eyes were closed, she was the pale green color Rainwings turn when they are truly scared. When Swordfish tried to touch her, he realized she was covered in a black and green sticky substance. It wrapped her up like spider webbing. Swordfish began to claw it off, disgusted.

When he peeled her face free, he tried to get her to wake up. "Hello?" He called quietly. No answer.

When he had peeled all of the webbing off and had thrown it into the darkness, she made a sound. A groaning. Her wounds were not bleeding, but were open, just like Swordfish's. "What's your name?" Swordfish asker her.

She coughed. "I'm Vine. And you?"


	18. Chapter 15: Abyss

She was right there in front of him. The dragon that had eluded him since the beginning of school. She was a bit smaller than Swordfish, looked the same age, she had 5 scars that looked open, yet they weren't bleeding. Her eyes looked drained, like she had been through something horrible, but they had a sparkle to them. Her scales were still that pale green, and she was shaking, even though it wasn't that cold in the strange darkness.

"I'm Swordfish." Swordfish replied to her in a hushed whisper. "I've been looking for you for a long time." Vine stared at him, still shaking. "You- you were the… d-dragon. You were th-the other one." She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "The visitors li-like- liked you more." She finished.

Swordfish felt like lightning had struck him as all the memories came back to him, this time, clear and crisp. Cassriel had been the one that had things called "visitors" vote to kill either Swordfish or a Rainwing dragonet. He remembered the two hands shoot out of the walls of that horrible, strange room, and stab him. He remembered Cassriel smiling at him. " _Hello, main character_." Is what he had said. And then…

Swordfish's memory after that went right to getting woken up by Cedar on the second day. He remembered the first day of school, where there weren't any actual classes, but the strange room felt like it was in between those days. Even though that didn't make any sense.

Vine started to close her eyes again. Swordfish shook her awake again. "Do you know where we are?" Swordfish stammered. "N-no." She replied. "I don't know anything about myself except my name is Vine, and that weird… thing. In that room." Swordfish stared at her, searching her ears.

"What are y-you doing?" Vine asked. "Nothing." Swordfish replied, but his mind had made the connection. _Not remembering anything other than your name. Isn't that exactly what happened to Mahogany, according to Cedar and Delta?_ Swordfish had been looking for an earring, like the one Mahogany had apparently worn, and Rattlesnake.

Swordfish helped Vine up. "Are you in pain?" He asked her. "No." she replied. "It's weird, I don't feel any pain. Even though these cuts are open." Swordfish sighed. More questions and no answers, but he wasn't complaining. The pain had been halted.

"Well, I'm Swordfish." Swordfish said. "I've been wrapped up in some weird stuff ever since I went to a place called Jade Mountain Academy. It's like a multi-tribe school." Swordfish was purposefully leaving lots of information out of his story because he did not know if he could trust Vine yet. "I kept hearing about a dragonet named Vine. Like she should have been with me, but she never was." Vine looked confused. "I know it's confusing, but I also think that the world I lived in wasn't even real." Swordfish said, still trying to wrap his head around that.

Swordfish was suddenly interrupted by a voice he recognized. "And you would be exactly right." He turned around to see Abyss, standing on the glass-like floor. His robes were now a dark green, and he wore an amulet around his neck. His face was still hidden. Swordfish backed up. "H-Have you come to kill me?" Vine looked confused again, and stared at Abyss in awe. "A scavenger! As big as a dragon and can talk!" "Don't go near him Vine!" Swordfish called. "He's with Cassriel! He tried to kill me!"

"On the very contrary, Swordfish." Abyss said calmly. "I saved you from death, in fact." "What do you mean? I don't even know where to begin! What even _are you?_ " Swordfish asked in a flurry. "Calm down, I will explain everything. Right now." Abyss said, and then paused. "Well, I'll give you a general idea."

"All of those different balls up there represent different worlds." Abyss began, pointing to the orbs floating around the blackness. He, Swordfish and Vine had met up on the glass floor. "Some are very similar. Some are very, _very_ different." Swordfish began to ask something, when Abyss cut him off. "I don't know why it is the way it is, but that is the way it is. Each world can be effected by beings called Visitors." Swordfish and Vine looked at each other knowingly. "These 'Visitors' are beings beyond any world we can reach. They act in strange ways, and create these worlds. The thing we are standing on is the supreme world. It cannot be altered by any visitor but one. Our word for it is **The Console** , but others call it **The Canon World**."

"So, you and Cassriel are Visitors?" Swordfish asked. Abyss chuckled. "No, I am not that powerful. The Visitors have control of their world. They create it, make it as deep and as complex as they want it. They are Gods."

Swordfish stared at Abyss, perplexed. "What are you talking about? I think someone would have figured something like that out before!" "Sometimes they do." Abyss answered calmly. "In some worlds, the inhabitants are fully aware of their creator. It's not common, but they exist."

"So… what are you?" Vine asked quietly. Abyss looked down at her startled. "No need to talk so quietly." Abyss said, and then looked back at Vine's wounds. "Oh! That's right! You two are injured! Let me just fix you up." Abyss pointed at both Swordfish and Vine, and their wounds and injuries disappeared. Just like that, the slash Cedar had given Swordfish had healed, and his wing was back to normal. Even Swordfish's back talon was back. Both Swordfish and Vine stared at Abyss in awe. "How did you do that?" Vine asked, and now that she wasn't dying, Swordfish could hear the personality in her voice. "Luckily for you two, injuries are halted in The Void." Abyss said.

Abyss pulled back his scavenger-hand into his cloak again. "Because I am something called a Demon. It is our job to make sure that these worlds stay intact and don't collide with one another. Some of us are more powerful than others, and we each have our own jobs and abilities. I am Abyss, Lord of Chaos." Abyss held up his paw and an effect like glass cracking spread throughout Swordfish's vision. Swordfish looked down, worried the floor was breaking, and Abyss laughed. "Oh calm down! I'm just messing with you." And the weird cracking stopped.

"In all seriousness though. Most Demons are very dangerous. Our duty is a good one, but most of the Demons have followed in the King's corruption." Abyss finished.

"The King?" Swordfish asked, worry immediately flooding through his head as he remembered the large, powerful being in his dream. "Yes. The King. The Demon King. He is our leader. He gives us orders. But not all of us like him." Abyss suddenly pulled an apple out of his cloak, and Swordfish watched as it rotted and multiple worms slithered out of it. What perplexed Swordfish even more was the fact that Abyss didn't seem to particularly care if either Swordfish or Vine saw him do it. He wasn't showing his power.

"I don't really care for the King's agendas, they are too orderly for a Lord of Chaos, but he'll kill me if he finds out." "So you're a rouge." Vine stated. Abyss sighed. "There are others like me. Few and far between. There are many Demons, so you have to watch yourself if you're going to be messing with all of this."

Abyss suddenly paused again. "Actually, I think you two are already wrapped up in it. Cassriel took you two, right?" Both Swordfish and Vine nodded. Abyss took a long sigh, and then began talking again.

"Cassriel's full title is 'Cassriel, The Poet.' One of the powers he has is to create entire aspects of a world, as if it were created by a visitor, but it's not." Swordfish stared at Abyss. "Do you mean like… a fake world?" "Yes. I mean that. That's what you were in, Swordfish. A fake world."

Of course, Swordfish had already considered it, but now he had full confirmation. The whole world. All his memories, everything. Even Rattlesnake. It was all fake. Swordfish was staring into the glass floor, looking at the Rainforest deep down below, for five minutes. Nobody talked.

 _Everything I thought I knew was a lie. Cassriel made it_ all _up. Everyone. Everyone back home, everyone at the school, Cedar, Rattlesnake, everything. Lies. I've lived my whole life with dragons who aren't even real. If my parents weren't even real, what does that make me? Am I fake? What am I?_

 _What am I?_

"Cassriel has a… problem." Abyss suddenly started again. "He likes to experiment with this sort of thing. He creates fake worlds, messes with visitor power, and he says everything he does is helping the King. He got you two, had the visitors vote to kill one of you, and inserted the others into the perfect story." Abyss stared right at Swordfish. "That world had all the elements. Rattlesnake was the perfect love interest. She was flawless. She was _made_ for the visitors to support a relationship between you and her. There was even competition, wasn't there?" Swordfish felt his body trembling. _Everything was fake. It was a story. I was the protagonist, Rattlesnake was the love interest, and Savanna was the competition._

"Who's Rattlesnake?" Vine asked. "Nobody important. Nobody even real." Abyss said off-handedly. And that last comment made Swordfish cry. Abyss and Vine watched Swordfish cry for a few seconds when Abyss whispered to Vine, " _He kind of loved her._ " "What about Cedar?" Swordfish asked through the tears. "What purpose did he serve?" "He and Rattlesnake were meant to work in harmony. Rattlesnake was never supposed to get killed by the killer, and Cedar's split personality was made so that the killer would be untraceable. Even by Darkseer, who was also put in this story to appease the visitors. All popular worlds have the over-powered character." Abyss patted Vine's head for some reason, and she gave him a confused look.

"It was supposed to be that you would get so wrapped up in trying to protect the perfect dragon from a killer you could never find and would never expect, you would be in there until the day you died. The world itself worked to cover Cedar's tracks. Like Darkstalker's scroll not working. Of course, you started to go down a path Cassriel didn't expect. You noticed some of Cassriel's sloppy work. Like Rattlesnake simply 'appearing' in class, Webs acting like Vine was there, and other stuff you thought was 'odd'. Cassriel slipped up, and allowed Cedar to attack Rattlesnake. When Cedar was defeated, and you told Rattlesnake what you thought, Cassriel used the world itself to attack you. He eventually came to kill you himself, and I convinced him out of it. I told him to let the world itself try to kill you, because I knew you're smarter than the average bear, and could survive mindless dragons. And that's how I saved you."

Swordfish couldn't believe it. He had been seeing through the lie since he got to Jade Mountain. He had just never put two and two together. Swordfish managed to stop crying. He _had_ to get more answers. "Abyss! What about Rainfall? What about that scavenger monster? What about the hooded dragons in Rainfall's cave? What's that giant thing in my dreams? What-" "Some questions are best left unanswered Swordfish, at least for now. What Blizzard told you not too long ago still is good advice, real or not. Don't go digging too deep."

Swordfish couldn't believe it. Here, in front of him, was someone who KNEW answers, and he wasn't going to tell Swordfish what he wanted to know! "WHY? WHY DO I HAVE TO ALWAYS BE LEFT IN THE DARK?! WHY CAN'T I KNOW WHAT I'M WRAPPED UP IN?" "Hey! Calm down!" Vine commanded, but her voice didn't fit the commanding tone. She was scared. She had no idea what she was thrusted into.

"The scavenger monster, I can answer that. But if I tell you too much information at once, the other demons will know someone informed you, and it won't take Cassriel long to figure out it was me."

Swordfish just stared at him. "The 'scavenger monster.' That is Adnachiel, The Huntress Demon. Her arrows kill anything they hit." Swordfish flashed back to Rainfall's death. The arrow had hit Rainfall in the arm. Swordfish had thought that a single arrow in the arm shouldn't kill an entire dragonet, but Abyss had been right again, he had figured something out.

"Her job is to kill things that are messing with the order of the worlds, but she is corrupted as Cassriel is." Abyss suddenly pulled a round, flat object out of his cloak, which made a ticking noise, and had three small rods stemming out of the center and pointing to numbers, which were in a circle around the edge of the object. "And pretty soon, she will be coming to kill you two."

"WHAT?" Swordfish yelled, and Vine stared at Abyss. "Well what do we do?" She asked him, panicked. "Well, do you two know how to world-jump?" Abyss asked. Swordfish and Vine stared at him again. "Ah, no time to explain. Here." Abyss pulled out the rotted apple from earlier, and then covered it in his scavenger paws. He pressed on it, and when he opened his paws again, there was a simple green necklace in place of the apple.

"To world-jump, just wear the necklace, and imagine a rift opening in front of you. Like this." Abyss put on the necklace, held out his paw, and a crack opened in the air. Through it, Swordfish could see Jade Mountain nearby.

"What's through there?" Vine asked. Abyss gave Swordfish the necklace. "Why don't you two find out?" Abyss said, laughing, and suddenly, Swordfish was flying toward the rift, out of his control. He passed through the rift.

Swordfish crashed into the ground, and heard Vine crash down near him. He turned around and the rift was gone. He was in a new world. Swordfish opened his claw and saw he was holding the necklace, and a bit of paper. He uncurled the paper to see what it said.

 _Only trust those you are absolutely sure you can._

Swordfish groaned. "Do you know where we are?" He asked Vine. "No." She said. "But I smell grass."


	19. Chapter 16: Dimensions: Part I

Swordfish got up and took a look around. He and Vine were outside of Jade Mountain Academy, but there were luscious grass fields outside the academy. "This is Jade Mountain!" Swordfish told Vine. "This is where I went to school, but these grass fields are new." "Well of course there's going to be differences, we're in a different world!" Vine said.

Swordfish stopped and took a deep breath. He was in a real world now. Nothing felt any different. He didn't feel any different than when he was in a fake world, the one Cassriel made.

"Do you want to go in to the academy? See if they will help us?" Vine asked. She sounded hopeful. She reminded Swordfish of Sunny, but a little less… responsible. "Sure." Swordfish replied. "Hopefully they'll be uh, like the dragons I know." Swordfish began to fly towards the main entrance to the academy, when Vine asked; "Who runs it anyway?" Swordfish stared at her. "You really lost your memory, didn't you?" Vine nodded her head solemnly. "I remember that my name is Vine, and how to do Rainwing things, and the basics of the world. Like, I know Pyrrhia and the tribes and how the royalty system works. But I don't know much else." Swordfish sighed. "Let me explain everything."

"So, we're going to see the Dragonets of Destiny, huh?" Vine said. Swordfish had quickly informed her about the War of Sandwing Succession, the prophecy, Jade Mountain Academy, and the Tragedy of Prince Winter. "Yes, I'm hoping these Dragonets of Destiny are the same ones I knew from my world." Swordfish paused. "I mean, the fake one." He said sadly.

When Swordfish and Vine reached the door, they barely had time to open it before Clay came barreling out of it. "Come on guys!" He yelled. "Let's eat some grass!"

Swordfish looked through the door to see a stampede of dragons running and flying down the hallway. Swordfish took to the sky and had to grab Vine to get her out of the way too. Once Swordfish and Vine were to the side of the rush of dragons, they began to watch what was happening.

The dragons of Jade Mountain were eating the grass from the grassy field. Swordfish watched in awe as he saw Turtle. Not injured. He was well and healthy. He was shoveling grass into Peril's mouth. She seemed happy. Turtle seemed happy. The entire world seemed like it wasn't under the dark cloud that hung over Swordfish's world. It seemed happy. A kind of light shined in this world that Swordfish had never known. Swordfish took another deep breath, this time letting the smells waft over him. The smells of sunshine, flowers that had blossomed in the fields. He heard the sounds of dragons, happy.

Swordfish's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a voice call out to him. "Hey, you two! Seawing and Rainwing! Come join in!" Swordfish turned to see who called to him and Vine and saw a black-green Nightwing dragonet with silver teardrop scales by her eyes. She was with a Sandwing dragonet with a scar and an earring. Not the 'gold dragons twisting around each other' earring that Rattlesnake and Mahogany had worn, it had a silver teardrop hanging from the ring. There was also a grumpy looking Icewing with them, with an elegance to him, like he was royalty. There was only one option on who these dragons could be.

"Moonwatcher? Qibli? Prince Winter?" Swordfish asked in disbelief. "Those are them?" Vine asked Swordfish. "The story makes them seem so much more…serious?" Swordfish watched as Qibli came up to him and Vine. "How do you know our names?" Qibli asked. "We're from another dimension." Vine blurted out, and then covered her claw over her mouth. "Oh, we're familiar with _that_ kind of stuff." Qibli replied. But Swordfish was looking around nervously. Vine had said that a little too loud. Abyss had told him Adnachiel would be hunting them. They were interdimensional outlaws. Swordfish began looking at every rock, every tree, everything. The dragons went about eating their grass, something Swordfish couldn't figure out. Suddenly a huge shadow passed over him. Swordfish and Vine screamed.

It was an enormous Nightwing. He was huge. None of the other dragons thought anything of it. He landed in the field and grabbed a huge chunk of grass. The large dragon also had the scales by his eyes like Moonwatcher did, and Fatespeaker did too now that Swordfish thought about it. "Oh calm down." Moonwatcher said to Swordfish. "That's just Darkstalker."

"DARKSTALKER!?" Swordfish yelped. "HE'S THE MOST DANGEROUS DRAGON IN ALL OF HISTORY!" Darkstalker then proceeded to make whale-like noises. "He _was_ the most dangerous dragon in all of history." Moon said. "Until grass had him reborn." Darkstalker sat there, eating grass.

"Why do you eat grass?" Vine asked Moon. "Because it tastes good!" Moon replied, and bent down to rip out a few strands herself. Vine bent down and ate some herself, and proceeded to spit it out. "That's disgusting! How do you eat that?" "You _don't like grass?_ " Moon said in disbelief. "SOMEONE DOESN'T LIKE GRASS?" Tsunami came over, yelling. "Tsunami, I need to tell you something. You're the headmaster. There are demons that control the…" Swordfish began before Tsunami cut him off. "Grass!" She said, totally abandoning her anger from before. She flopped down on the ground and began eating grass along with everyone else.

"No, I need you to listen to me!" Swordfish said. "We're being hunted by a demon called Adnachiel!" "Maybe they can eat grass with us too!" Clay said.

"Wait, Clay how did you get here?" Swordfish asked. "Oh, I appeared for the sake of plot!" Clay said. "It's something that happens all the time here."

Swordfish pulled Vine aside. "These are not the dragons I know. They're… weird. I don't know if the grass has some weird effect on them, or that's just the way this place is." Swordfish wondered about that second option. What kind of visitor would create something like this? What must be going on in their minds?

"Do you know how to escape?" Vine asked. "Do you know how to use that necklace Abyss gave us?" Swordfish had been wearing the simple green necklace since he got to the new world. He took it off and remembered what Abyss had told him _"Wear the necklace, and then imagine a rift opening up in front of you."_ Swordfish was already wearing the necklace, so he imagined a rift like the tears he had seen when the world was collapsing.

Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.

Swordfish sighed, and turned to Vine. "We might be stuck here."

Hours had passed, and it was becoming sunset. The dragons continued to eat grass, and Swordfish and Vine simply sat on a rock, watching the insanity unfold. At one point, Queen Glory showed up, and Swordfish pointed her out to Vine, showing Vine her queen. "She's a good queen. She provided so much for the Rainwings and had mercy on the Nightwings. Mercy is a rare quality for queens these days."

The peace was suddenly interrupted when a dragon called out, "Hey! What's that up there?" Swordfish turned around and froze when he saw what it was. It's green and black robes flowed in the light breeze. It was perched on a rock on the Mountain. It's strange, skull like face shone pale white, reflecting the bits of moonlight that were beginning to beam through the sky. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver and loaded her bow.

Adnachiel was here.

Swordfish could hardly move. The monster that had killed Rainfall, was here for him. The arrows killed anything they hit. Even from this distance, he locked eyes with her. She was staring right into his very soul. Behind that skull, lay something Swordfish never wanted to see.

Vine suddenly grabbed Swordfish's claw. "GO! GO!" She cried. They began to fly away, and Adnachiel began to follow, crawling along the mountain like a spider, just as she did when pursuing Swordfish and the others that night when Rainfall died.

Adnachiel drew her arrow, she aimed it right at Vine. Swordfish and Vine ducked into the crowd of dragons eating grass. Suddenly, Swordfish watched in awe as Fatespeaker flew up, wearing something on her back talons. She rammed into Adnachiel.

Swordfish watched as Adnachiel fell off the mountain and into the trees down below. Fatespeaker came down and landed down beside Clay. "Grapefruit powered rocket boots!" She called. "Also, rest in peace whatever that thing was."

As the rest of the dragons crowded around Fatespeaker to talk about these 'boots,' Swordfish and Vine ran away. Adnachiel wasn't going to stay down for long, and they had to get out of here. These dragons could provide no protection. "Do _you_ remember how to do it?" Swordfish asked Vine hurriedly. "No. I was kind of busy trying to remember who I was and trying to process everything Abyss was saying!" Swordfish thought back to when Abyss told him about Adnachiel. Maybe she had a weakness?

Swordfish replayed everything Abyss had done, telling him about Adnachiel, and how she is corrupted like Cassriel. Right after that is when Abyss told them how to use the necklace. Abyss put it on, and held out his paw, and the rift opened.

"Oh! I have to do the claw motion!" Swordfish said, realizing his mistake. He felt the simple necklace thump against his chest as he came to a stop. Swordfish put out one front claw out, and imagined a rift opening in front of him. One of those terrible rips in the fabric of the world. Suddenly, Swordfish felt a tugging from the green stone the necklace had, and the rift opened in front of him. Through it, Swordfish could see exactly where he was now, but it looked closer to the Jade Mountain he knew. No grassy fields.

Swordfish took one last look at the happy, ignorant dragons here. This was some weirdness he didn't want any part of.

Vine walked through the rift, and Swordfish followed. Once they were both in the new world, it closed behind Swordfish. Just like the rifts had done with Cassriel and Abyss when the old world was falling apart.

"This looks better." Swordfish said. It looked like home again. "Now remember, don't mention anything about the truth unless it's someone I say we can trust, and don't be too loud about it." Vine nodded. _Maybe Adnachiel won't find us here. What if Vine and I just decide to stay here, and never tell a soul about the truth._ But the memories of Rattlesnake, and the other members of his winglet convinced Swordfish otherwise. He had to get back to them. To her.

When Swordfish approached the doors to the academy, he opened them slowly, preparing himself for Clay to come rushing out again. But nothing like that happened. Inside the academy looked normal. Vine walked in, and Swordfish after her.

Suddenly, a voice ripped through Swordfish's thoughts of hope, that this was just like home, but real. "Hello!" Called the voice. It was Sunny, but she sounded even more friendly than normal. "We weren't expecting any more new students!" Sunny said, still holding her super friendly, happy face. "I just got done showing around our newest student, Oceancurse!" Swordfish looked at Sunny weirdly. She was acting… weird. Like, more weird than normal. "Oceancurse is a hybrid! Isn't that cool? Our school is so inclusive! Anyway, what can I help you with?" Sunny asked. "My name is Vine!" Vine said, sounding eerily like Sunny. "And this is Swordfish." "Hi." Swordfish said. Something was off, but he couldn't place it. "Nice to meet you two, are you two new students I was unaware of?" Sunny asked. Before Swordfish could answer, Vine began talking. "No, we're from…" "Far away." Swordfish cut Vine off, and then gave her a look. " _Oops, sorry._ " She whispered.

"Hey, uh, do you have a Sandwing student named Rattlesnake here?" Swordfish asked. Now, Sunny was the one that looked confused. "No…" She responded. She was interrupted by a gong sounding. "Oop, its lunchtime!" Sunny said, and ran off towards the prey center. It was a friendly run. Swordfish took a deep breath. This place felt more like home than the weird grass world, but it still seemed off. Like sleeping on a different surface, or eating your favorite food only to have it taste like something else.

"Well, you want to go see what's up?" Vine asked, and Swordfish shrugged. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe this world would be alright, and would provide help.

Swordfish and Vine walked to the prey center, and instead of getting into all the chaos, Swordfish hung around by the exit, like he used to. He wasn't even hungry. He didn't think he could eat after everything that had happened since he woke up in the hospital wing.

Swordfish watched as he saw a very odd looking dragonet walked by with a Mudwing close behind her. _That must be Oceancurse._ Swordfish thought. He wondered why the visitor that controlled this world made Oceancurse this way, a hybrid of so many tribes. Didn't the visitor realize how hard it must be in Pyrrhia's society? Swordfish wondered what the visitor was thinking, and one of his two scars began to hurt. It felt fresh. Like he had just been stabbed. An image flickered through Swordfish's mind. A memory. One of the blades that came out of the wall in Cassriel's little room.

 _I wonder why_

Swordfish watched as Oceancurse was suddenly approached by a Rainwing and a Nightwing. The Rainwing flashed colors on her ruff and began circling around Oceancurse. Oceancurse turned grey and black. "Look, OB." The Rainwing said. "It's O-O-OC!" The Mudwing said, breaking her silence. "Sorry, O-O-OC," The Rainwing sneered. Swordfish could piece together that this was not a good dragon already. "Listen here, that hot Sandwing, who is also hot in the 'good-looking' sense of the world, is _mine_. Back off Hotness, or you'll get a taste of Rainwing venom." The Rainwing bared her fangs. _So it's about a love interest._ Swordfish thought. _How… weirdly familiar._ The Rainwing smirked. "You don't own him!" Oceancurse cried. "Why aren't you nice?"

It was only now that Swordfish realized what was so weird about this place. Nobody had depth. They were just like characters from a poorly written scroll. They were so bad, they were good.

The Rainwing snickered, then looked at the Nightwing. "I don't know, Twister, why _am_ I not nice?" She made a fake gasp. "Oh, wait, it's because you suck! Ha ha!" Vine visibly cringed. The Nightwing apparently named Twister just coughed. A group of students suddenly appeared and began admiring the Rainwing, who strutted off.

Swordfish held back a laugh when the Rainwing and Twister were gone. Vine looked at him, shocked. "Why are you laughing? Did you really think that 'you suck' insult was funny?" "No." Swordfish said. "It's the classic love triangle. Protagonist, perfect love interest, competition."

After some of the chaos died down, Swordfish began to talk to Vine about what to do next in a hushed tone. "So you think they are… they are… I can't think of the word." Vine said. "One-dimensional." Swordfish said. "Yeah. Nobody here has any depth." But Vine didn't seem to be listening. She was focused on a passing Skywing. "Vine?" Swordfish asked. "Look at him." Vine whispered. Vine nudged a nearby Skywing, and asked what the name of the Skywing she was staring at. "Expendable." Said the random Skywing. _Yeesh. Their name is Expendable. Who in Pyrrhia would have a crush on someone_ named _Expendable?_ Swordfish watched Expendable run off with curiosity, and Vine watched in awe. "Did you see him?" Vine asked. "He was so handsome." Swordfish took a nice look at Vine. "Do you know what expendable means?" He genuinely asked her. "No. They don't teach that advanced vocabulary in the Rainforest."

Swordfish sat there wondering how his new friend could fall for one of these depthless dragons, when Expendable rushed into the room again. "Oh stars!" He said. "Oh my stars, oh stars!" He conveniently tripped on something. He stayed down on the ground. "SHE'S DEAD! SHE'S DEAD! DEAD! THERE'S BEEN A MURDER!" But in the silence that followed Expendable's yelling, Swordfish froze as he heard a high pitched noise in the distance.

The huntress had found her prey.


	20. Chapter 17: Dimensions: Part II

Swordfish whirled around to face Vine. "We need to go. Now." He whispered. "Why?" She asked. "I want to see what Expendable has to say. Maybe this dead dragon is linked to Adnachi-whatever." "Adnachiel hunts dragons who mess with the order of the worlds." Swordfish said, and only now did Swordfish realize what that meant about Rainfall.

"I don't think anyone in this world could really do some damage to the worlds." Swordfish argued. "The dragons here, they didn't seem capable of knowing they were in a story. I think this death was supposed to happen. Adnachiel didn't do it." "Well, that Rainwing and her Nightwing friend seemed pretty mean." Vine said. "How do we know they didn't do something to mess with stuff?"

Swordfish paused. That Rainwing was just mean, but the Nightwing, Twister, gave off some sinister vibes. Swordfish and Vine watched in silence as Tsunami got answers out of Expendable. The dead dragon was named Islet. Suddenly, an Icewing cried out. "She was the only realistic character here, albeit an insignificant background one, but at least she had a good name!" The Icewing stopped descaling his trout and stared at his talons. "I can't believe it. I can't believe it. We had _one_ decent dragon in our winglet, and someone had to go kill her."

Swordfish stared at the Icewing. Everything he had just said contradicted what Swordfish had thought about the dragons in this world. He was fully aware. He knew this dead dragon was a background character.

Swordfish was faced with two options. Stay here like Vine wanted and find out more about this Icewing, and what he might know, or run away from the high-pitched noise that Swordfish had figured out was inexplicably linked with Adnachiel. Swordfish watched as Oceancurse said that she would avenge Islet, and then she turned to the Icewing. "Subzero, I promise I will get justice for her."

 _Subzero._ Swordfish thought. _If anyone here knows anything, it would be him._ Vine began walking forward. " _What are you doing?_ " Swordfish whispered. "I'm going to go talk to Expendable." Vine said. Swordfish grabbed her wing. "Don't." Swordfish said. "Can you imagine falling for someone that isn't even from your universe? Don't you think the visitor that rules this world would already have someone for Expendable?" That made Vine stop. Falling for someone outside of your own universe, a love that could never be, because you shouldn't even exist to one another.

Swordfish continued to watch as Oceancurse gave a speech to the prey center, talking about saving them all, and being relatable. Subzero walked over and sighed. He nodded slightly to Oceancurse. "I'll help." He said, sounding exasperated. "If only to make sure I'm not killed before writing my exposé of this institution."

Swordfish and Vine watched from the sidelines until a Sandwing showed up, and began talking to Oceancurse. "You can help too, Hotness. I'm sure you'll be a _big_ help. I mean, like, like with the mystery and everything. That 'big' comment wasn't innuendo or anything. Because that would be totally inappropriate." Oceancurse said, turning pink. Vine nudged Swordfish. "What does 'innuendo' mean?" Swordfish stared at Oceancurse a bit longer. "It means the visitor is having some fun."

As the group that was going to investigate the dead body was leaving, Swordfish ran up to Subzero. "Excuse me." Swordfish said. Subzero looked at Swordfish and tilted his head. "Who are you?" He asked. "My name is Swordfish, and I need to ask you if you know about the demons, and the visitors that control us all." Subzero stared at Swordfish. "Seriously? I really did not need more weirdos." Swordfish opened his mouth to talk again, only for Vine to lightly thwack him with her wing. Subzero walked off, and Swordfish turned to Vine. "What?" He said impatiently. Subzero was getting away.

"She's here. We have to go." Vine said, and she pointed out the opening of the prey center. Swordfish could see the form of Adnachiel, bow slung over her shoulder. Her dark eyes once again made contact with Swordfish's. She didn't draw her bow. She just stared. Swordfish and Vine ducked behind the large figure of Clay who was passing by. Adnachiel was far enough away that nobody else had noticed her, and Swordfish wondered how Vine had been able to.

The two dragonets ran off out of the prey center. "Is there a safe place to open the rift where we won't attract attention?" Vine asked as they rounded a corner. _My cave._ Swordfish immediately thought, and then remembered that the new caves most likely didn't exist here. "The art cave." Swordfish said. "Nobody ever goes there."

When Swordfish and Vine got to the art cave, Swordfish took off the necklace. "Do you want to do the honors?" Swordfish asked, smiling at Vine. He was trying to lighten the mood. "Sure." Vine said. "I probably am going to need to learn to do this anyway." Vine took the necklace from Swordfish and put it on. "Okay, so I put out my claw…" She began. "And then imagine the rift opening in front of you. Like you're tearing a piece of cloth." Swordfish said. Vine concentrated, and then the rift opened.

The two dragonets began to walk into the rift, when they heard a voice. "What in Pyrrhia?" They turned to see a Nightwing dragonet staring at them, his eyes wide. Swordfish recognized him as Mightyclaws. He had an assortment of paintbrushes with him. "What is that?!" Mightyclaws asked, gesturing to the rift with a trembling wing. "Who are you?!" He then said, staring at Swordfish and Vine. Swordfish acted without thinking. He grabbed a stand with a canvas on it, and tore off the canvas. He chucked it at Mightyclaws. It hit him square between the eyes. Mightyclaws fell to the ground, out cold. Swordfish and Vine stared at the unconscious dragon. "Nice throw." Vine finally said. The two entered the rift, and it closed behind them.

The rift lead to a large bush. Swordfish went in first and got a face full of prickly branches. Vine came through after him, and laughed. "It's just like the bushes in the rainforest!" And then she stopped. "I just remembered something! The bushes I used to play in when I was young. I would jump off of trees and land in them." Vine was suddenly interrupted by the sound of dragons cheering. Swordfish peeked out of the bush to see that they were definitely in the Sky Kingdom. The mountain town was filled with Skywings, most of them walking with their families towards a giant arena. "Oh dear." Swordfish muttered under his breath. He turned back around to Vine. "We're in the Sky Kingdom." He said, and Vine perked up. "Isn't that a good thing?" She asked. "Won't Queen Ruby help us?" Swordfish looked worriedly at the group of Skywings headed into the arena. "Ruby didn't do the gladiator fights. That can only mean that her mother, Scarlet, is queen right now." "Do you think Scarlet will help us?" Vine asked hopefully. Swordfish turned to look Vine in the eyes. "Scarlet was possibly one of the worst queens in history. If she is queen now, that also means we're deep into the War of Sandwing Succession. They'll kill me on sight."

They waited until the group of Skywings had filed into the arena. _Okay._ Swordfish thought. _So, I should probably head to Queen Coral for help, as she is the only one that won't kill a Seawing trespasser. But what will I say to her? How will I be able to convince her, let alone get an audience with her? What would the council think? Should I warn the queen about Anemone going crazy? Should I drastically change the course of the war?_

Swordfish suddenly realized that Vine had left the bush, and was walking towards the edge of the arena, which now had cheers echoing out of it. Swordfish looked around, and then quickly flew out of the bush to catch up with Vine. "What are you doing? Didn't I just tell you that Scarlet was a dangerous queen? She's probably in there right now!" Swordfish shook his head. Vine had no regard for her own safety. "But you don't know that." Vine said. "And don't you want to know what's going on?" Swordfish paused when he heard the announcer announce the two combatants. "After last month's battle with Blaze's army, our queen's dungeouns were stuffed with Icewing prisoners of war. Only nine have survived. After two wins, I give you – Fjord of the Icewings!" The dragon's voice boomed through the arena, and Vine took a look through a small hole in the arena wall. Swordfish sighed and looked through too. They could see a good part of the arena from the hole, and the large Icewing lashed his tail at his opponent, which Swordfish could not see.

"And in this corner, an unusual case – a Mudwing, but not one of our allies. No, this dragonet was found hiding under our mountains, protected by the Talons of Peace. Is he one of the dragonets of destiny? Not if he loses this battle!" Swordfish's mind suddenly clicked. _That's it! The dragonets of destiny and the Talons of Peace! They would help!_ Vine looked up at Swordfish. "Clay? Like the Mudwing that rushed out of the doors in the weird grass world?" Swordfish nodded.

The announcer continued. "If these prophesied dragonets are as wonderful and legendary as they're supposed to be, this should be a showdown to remember. I hope you're ready to impress us, dragon of the mud. I present to you… Clay of the Mudwings! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!"

From Swordfish's point of view, it appeared that Clay was trying to talk to Fjord, but Fjord lashed out with his claws, and Clay just barely dodged them. Clay continued to talk to Fjord, and Swordfish's eyes wandered up to the prisoners chained to the towers. He spotted a lone Nightwing, most likely Starflight. He saw a Seawing, itching himself like a dog, and Swordfish had a bolt of realization that that was Gill, the old King of the Seawings, who had been killed in Scarlet's arena after going insane from a lack of water. Swordfish managed to drag his eyes off of Gill. He knew he couldn't save him, and even if he did, it would only affect _this_ world. If Swordfish ever found a place like home, Gill would still be dead. Swordfish resumed watching the fight.

Clay continued to try and talk to Fjord, but Fjord took a deep breath, calling the snowstorm inside him, and then blasted Frostbreath in Clay's direction. A bit hit Clay's wingtips and he made a face of pain. Swordfish cringed. He was never able to understand why the Skywings enjoyed the arena. The crowds applauded the fight as it went on, and Swordfish noticed Vine was watching the fight, obviously repulsed at the crowd's reactions. They probably didn't have things like this in the Rainforest. Even if she couldn't remember it, she still had an upbringing there. Swordfish suddenly stopped to ponder that. If you couldn't remember your upbringing, would it still have an effect on how you live and react to things? If there was an Icewing who couldn't remember anything of being raised as an Icewing, would he still think they were the superior tribe?

Swordfish shook it off, for he could not think about that right now.

Swordfish's eyes wandered up to Scarlet's seat, and he spotted Glory, resting on the small tree. "See her?" Swordfish pointed Glory out to Vine. "That's Glory. Before she was queen, of course." Vine stared at Glory. So did Swordfish. Part of him told him to look away, but he had always been curious about what the fated venom had looked like.

Suddenly, a commotion rang out. Swordfish and Vine looked up to see a Seawing trying to get off her podium. The chains held her down. "Hey that's…" Vine began, and Swordfish answered her. "Yep. Tsunami." Swordfish kept his eyes on Glory. He watched as she opened her eyes, and her jaws opened wide. She spat the venom down on Fjord, who began screaming. His screams echoed through the arena, cutting through the commotion of Tsunami and the crowd watching. Vine looked back down to Fjord, and then at Glory, and then Swordfish.

"She didn't… She wouldn't…" Vine said, but Swordfish just nodded. " _She used her venom!"_ Vine said, with a betrayed look on her face. "And she's QUEEN?" Swordfish just watched as Fjord's face was eaten away by the acid. The flesh was turning black and crumbly. As the screaming stopped, the crowd cheered for Clay, and the Skywing soldiers took the body away and put Clay back to his podium. Swordfish turned and looked at Vine, who was staring at Fjord's body with a look of horror. _Well, if Adnachiel ever gets close enough, Vine can just… No. No. I wouldn't force her to use her venom to hurt someone. Or SOMETHING for that matter._

But the announcer began to speak again. "Yes, that was quite the last fight, but now we have another special fight for you folks." The audience cheered, hungry for another special fight. "This time however, is something quite peculiar. On one side is a dragonet who was captured at the base of a mountain last night as a suspected spy. This is a dragon that no one has ever seen the likes of before, with barely any memory of who he is. I present to you, Static of the Unknown!"

Swordfish's eyes widened as a dragonet landed on the arena floor. He was silver, and had back spikes like a Nightwing. He had a large black scale design down his neck and onto his body. He had horns that were jagged, not smooth like others. Like a Seawing's but not as rounded. "What tribe is that?" Vine asked Swordfish. "I… I don't know!" Swordfish replied. _What was this place? Why had none of the worlds been normal?_ "The announcer said he was unknown." Swordfish said. "Do you think _he_ could know what's going on?" Vine asked, and Swordfish studied the dragonet's confused face. "I doubt it."

The announcer began introducing the other fighter. "On the other side, his opponent will be a confirmed spy that was caught working for Blaze. With one win so far, its Sahara the Sandwing!" Sahara landed in the arena, and Swordfish looked at her. She looked almost like Blister, what with the pale yellow and patterns as black as her eyes. Swordfish shuddered, remembering the dark eyes of the dragons he once knew in the old world, coming for him, bent on his death.

"And with that, claws up, teeth ready, fight!" The announcer finished, letting the crowd's cheers take over. Sahara immediately bolted towards Static, and when she was almost on top of him, Static faked a move to the left, and then did the complete opposite, taking a sharp right and ending up behind Sahara.

Swordfish smirked to himself. That was something he used to do against his brother Starfish. He would dodge his brother's forceful attacks, and end up behind him. "You're at least good at one thing, Swordfish." His father would say. "What's that?" Swordfish would ask, hopefully. "Running away! That won't do you any good as a guard in the palace!" Then his father would go back inside and leave Swordfish alone with Starfish.

Swordfish gasped. That was a new memory.

"Oh!" Vine said out loud when Static flung sand off the ground into Sahara's eyes. Sahara herself howled in fury, and began using her claws to get the sand out, lashing her poisonous tail around. Static stood there, looking around the arena. He was thinking.

Suddenly, Sahara looked right at Static, and charged at Static with a scream of fury. Static stood up tall, moving his legs, and then Swordfish and Vine took a step back as out of his mouth shot a bolt of lightning. Swordfish could hear the sound of the electricity crackling. Sahara went flying backwards and slammed down on the ground. Her body thrashed and shook, a look on her face unlike anything Swordfish had ever seen. Her mouth was open in a perpetual scream, but no sound. She stopped moving. Her scales on her chest began to turn black.

At first, there was silence from the crowd. Like everyone had become a mute like Sahara. Then they started cheering. Static looked at Sahara, defeated. Even though he was alive, he looked like he lost.

Swordfish was staring at Static from his hidden spot, when he heard a voice call out. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?" Swordfish took a sharp inhale and turned around to see a lone Skywing soldier flying towards them. He wore the traditional helmet and the spear the Skywing army carried into battle. "Move!" Swordfish said to Vine. They took off.

Swordfish flew as fast as his tired wings allowed him. He was grateful Abyss had healed his wounds, and eased the pain. Vine was smaller than Swordfish, so Swordfish had her fly under him. But the Skywing was fast. He had the large wings of a Skywing, and he was full-grown. "Vine! Are you sure you don't want to use your venom?!" Swordfish called out. "Never!" Vine said. Swordfish sighed. They began to descend on the village that surrounded the palace and arena. Swordfish tried not to let the cries of a Skywing dragonet on a roof worry him. "Look! A Seawing! In the capital! I hope he dies!"

The Skywing was covering ground much faster than Swordfish. He and Vine were only keeping ahead because they had been further away when the chase began. Swordfish thought back to what Static had done in the arena. If he could just trick the guard…

Swordfish flew down much closer to Vine. "Follow my lead." Swordfish flew forward after Vine nodded. He started to lean right, like he was going to dash that direction. He waited until the Skywing put on a burst of speed in the right direction, and then Swordfish turned to the left, away from the village and into the mist coming off the mountain. Hopefully, the Skywing wouldn't be able to find them in it. He and Vine disappeared into the mist and the Skywing stopped, confused. He was still facing right.

Swordfish and Vine landed on a clearing and took deep breaths. "Good thinking." Vine said. "Thanks." Swordfish said, and then coughed. Vine's scales had lost their pale green hue, and were now attempting to become blue, as if she was trying to calm herself. "Where do you think we are?" She asked. Swordfish exhaled. "I don't know. Somewhere in the past, in the war, with that Unknown lightning dragon." He said. "That… I already know that." Vine said. "Well, you know just as much as I do at this point." Swordfish said. And then he felt claws on his back.

Swordfish fell to the ground. Vine turned invisible. The Skywing soldier was back. And he had the spear pointed at Swordfish's throat. Swordfish was pinned down by the soldier's legs, who raised the spear. "You think you could lose me? In my own hometown? You filthy spy." The soldier gripped the spear. "I should turn you in, but I think I'll just kill you right here. Just you and me here." Swordfish began choking out words. "Use… venom… use… it." "WHAT? WHAT VENOM?" The soldier cried out. Swordfish was right. Rainwing venom wasn't common knowledge at this point, and the soldier hadn't even seen Vine.

Swordfish waited for Vine to do something. He looked at the spot where she disappeared.

Nothing.

"Quit your blabbering! Prepare to die, you Blister-loving sea-snouted heirless…" The soldier never finished his sentence. He stopped, a look of shock on his face, and fell to the ground. Swordfish jumped up and Vine revealed herself, her scales red and green, anger and fear.

Out of the soldier's back, was an arrow. Lodged right in the small of his back. Swordfish looked in the direction it was fired from.

There she was again. Her dark eyes staring right into Swordfish's very being.

The soldier's body began to bleed from the wound as Adnachiel dashed forward, her prey sitting ducks.

 **Big thanks to Xtremesilly1563, Fatespeaker, and thegamersdragon for letting me use their stories. Go check them out!**

 **On another note, has anyone ever looked at the cover image? What do you see…?**


	21. Chapter 18: Dimensions: Part III

"Run!" Swordfish cried. Adnachiel suddenly ran towards them with her abnormal speed. Vine stopped, gripped the necklace and held out her front claw. A rift opened. She and Swordfish ran through it.

They were in the Ice Kingdom now, but they barely had any time to breathe before another rift opened and Adnachiel came through it. Her paws gripped the ice as she slid towards Swordfish and Vine. "Vine! Give me the necklace!" Swordfish cried. Vine quickly took it off and threw it to Swordfish. Vine shrieked as Adnachiel drew her bow. Swordfish held out his claw and another rift opened. Adnachiel was aimed right at Vine. Her dark eyes behind the skull showed no emotion. She let the arrow fly. Swordfish shoved Vine through the rift ahead of him. The arrow whizzed past Swordfish as Vine tumbled into the rift.

Swordfish hesitated before running in after her. He looked at Adnachiel for a moment. She didn't draw another arrow. She just looked at him. She raised her arm as if she was going to say something, but never did. She put her arm down. Swordfish jumped into the rift, and it closed behind him.

When Swordfish took a breath in the new world, all he got was smoke. He coughed. Vine was already covering her snout with her wing. They were in the Mud Kingdom now, and it was sunset. There were dead bodies everywhere. Mudwings were the tribe they saw the most of. Swordfish got a nice view of a dead dragonet with a sizeable hole through his chest, and part of his face was gone. There was another, older Mudwing with long burns all along one side of his body. His wing was nothing but exposed burnt flesh and bones. His mouth was open in a scream, reflecting the pain he died in.

This was the War of Sandwing Succession at its finest.

Swordfish suddenly whirled around to see a rift open across the battlefield. Adnachiel stepped out. Swordfish grabbed Vine and they jumped into a trench that had been dug. Inside was an Icewing. He had an open wound in his stomach, bleeding blue blood into the dirt. He had a spear next to him. He turned and saw Swordfish. "…Dirty…Seawing…" He choked out. He stared at Swordfish, hate burning in his bright blue eyes. Like an iceberg on fire. He looked down towards the spear, and then up at Swordfish. The Icewing didn't move though. He couldn't.

Vine had turned invisible, blending in with the mud and dirt. " _What do we do?"_ She whispered to Swordfish. Swordfish looked at her and shrugged. He had no idea what to do. He looked at the trenches. How they kept going. Like a tunnel. They were endless. Vine twined her tail around his. Swordfish turned to look at her. She trusted him. Swordfish felt the fleeting sense of belonging, similar to how he felt in those weeks before Cedar stabbed Rattlesnake.

Vine peered over the edge of the trench, and then ducked back down. " _I don't think she sees us yet."_ She said, a bit of pale green flickering through her scales. Swordfish was still looking through the trenches. Past the dying Icewing. Through the blood and smoke, they kept going. Multiple paths spreading away from each other. An idea began to creep up on Swordfish.

Suddenly, the Icewing began to scream loudly. Screams of anger and pain. Vine suddenly turned back to fully visible, her pale green appearing like a beacon through the brown and black. And then, Adnachiel was upon them. Her strange, talon-like melee weapons glinted the sunset's orange. Swordfish grabbed the necklace and held out his claw. The rift opened. Vine turned invisible and grabbed the spear the dying Icewing had with him. Adnachiel swiped at the space that carried the spear, and blood began to leak out of the empty space where Vine was. _Her arrows kill things immediately, but not her other weapons._ Swordfish realized. Swordfish kept the rift open, and then imagined multiple rifts, inside the rift, creating a tunnel, like the trenches. Multiple rifts inside that rift. "VINE!" He called. Swordfish ran into the rift, and Vine after him, escaping Adnachiel. The rift closed behind them.

Swordfish suddenly found himself speeding through worlds. Only getting glimpses of them before being flung into the next. He was flying, and so was Vine. He only saw moments of these worlds before flying to the next. A scene of a snowy forest, a crowd of Nightwings watching a stage, a palace in the sand with Sandwings flying around it, a small house on the water with three young Seawing dragonets playing outside of it. There were weirder ones too. A dark city with buildings taller than Swordfish had ever seen, scavengers with robes and flat hats on, a terrifying scene of a comet bearing down on the world. There were others too, but Swordfish had no time to see them.

Finally, Swordfish and Vine came to a stop. Vine had turned a combination of pale green, orange, and gold. "Three moons! What was that!?" She asked, breathing heavily. Swordfish was still getting used to standing still. "I opened multiple rifts inside a rift. We just went through, like, twenty different worlds. Hopefully we can lose Adnachiel now." "That was… fun!" Vine said. "So many colors so fast!" Swordfish groaned, still dizzy. "Hey… where are we?" Vine asked.

Swordfish got up, and took a look around. The world was dark and eerie. Dark clouds covered the entirety of the sky, with slight blue light shining through. Swordfish looked at the buildings, dilapidated and broken. Some things were floating in midair, various bricks, boards, and other items. He didn't hear a sound from the entire place. "Possibility." Vine said, reading a sign nearby. " _This is Possibility?"_ Swordfish wondered to himself. He had always imagined so much more… happy.

As Swordfish and Vine began to walk through the strange, dark world. They came across one singular dragon. A Sandwing. He was staring ahead, his eyes wide. Vine walked right in front of him and he didn't react. He didn't move. He just stared ahead. Vine had already turned back to pale green, and Swordfish was scared too. So much so, that he couldn't control his shaking.

The world was cold. Not like cold weather, but like it lacked heat entirely. Looking up, Swordfish could not see the sun nor moon. Just darkness. As the pair walked over a bridge that crossed a river, Swordfish looked down to see that the water hadn't frozen over, but it wasn't moving. It just… stayed where it was. No currents. No wind. Just absolutely still water.

Swordfish turned a corner and saw another dragon. A Nightwing this time, staring into space like the Sandwing had been. He didn't move. He didn't make any noise. Next to him was a barrel, floating in midair like it was nothing.

"Hey Swordfish, what does that say?" Vine asked. Swordfish walked over to her, to see her pointing to a sign on a building. "Possibility Education" Swordfish read aloud. "So… It's a school." Vine said, and Swordfish nodded. They entered the building.

Inside was no different than the rest of the city, but Swordfish felt something change. Like he could feel someone else with him other than Vine. Something powerful. They eventually came to a room labeled "Principal." When they opened the door. There was a Nightwing sitting at a desk, staring into space. Just as dead inside as everything else here. A plaque on his desk read "Principal Nightvision."

Suddenly, a loud bang from somewhere in the building interrupted Swordfish's examination of the room. Vine looked up, and so did Swordfish. Right above them, the ceiling began to break. The boards suddenly broke away and through the hole Swordfish saw the soulless eyes of Adnachiel, she had already found them. Swordfish grabbed the necklace, but Adnachiel fired an arrow. It went through the hole and hit the necklace's string with such force, it ripped it right off of Swordfish's neck and it fell to the floor.

Adnachiel dropped through the hole and slashed at Vine with her talon-like weapons. Vine turned invisible just in time, and dodged the attack. Adnachiel turned around to face Swordfish. Swordfish grabbed a board that had come off the ceiling, and whipped it at Adnachiel. It broke on her, doing nothing. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver, but didn't draw her bow. She was just going to stab him. Swordfish froze with fear. But Adnachiel suddenly stopped advancing. She held the arrow threateningly, but bent down and grabbed the necklace off the ground. Swordfish watched helplessly as she threw it on the ground, and stomped it with her foot. The green stone shattered. "NO!" Swordfish yelled. Along with the stone, she had shattered any hope of escaping this world, and ever getting back to a place like home.

Vine suddenly appeared and jumped onto Adnachiel with bravery Swordfish didn't know she had. Adnachiel stopped in her tracks when Vine used her claws to cover Adnachiel's eyes. Swordfish grabbed the remains of the necklace and ran out of the room. Vine jumped off of Adnachiel and turned invisible and followed Swordfish. As Swordfish ran, he looked behind him to see Adnachiel draw her bow, and aim at… nothing. But then it hit Swordfish that she was aiming at invisible Vine as she ran. _I knew it. She's mainly going for Vine. This also means she can see past Rainwing invisibility._

 _If she won't kill me..._

"Vine! Take this!" Swordfish yelled and held out the broken necklace. Swordfish watched as an invisible claw took the necklace away. Swordfish took a step towards Adnachiel. She paused. She didn't fire her bow. The arrow was drawn, she was aimed right at Swordfish.

But she didn't fire.

Swordfish's knees were shaking. He stared at Adnachiel right in the eyes. This was the same thing that had killed Rainfall. The thing that had terrorized his dreams. The long, beaked skull she wore showed no emotion. Only now did Swordfish get a good look at the demon. The hunting cloak she wore was black and dark green. She had straps on her arms to keep the talon-like weapons in place. She wore coverings on her feet that went up to her knees. There were also straps on the right and left sides of her head and on top, as if they were the things keeping the skull there.

Suddenly, Swordfish felt the strange presence there again, like someone was watching him. Someone was rooting for him. If Adnachiel wouldn't shoot him, what was stopping him from attacking her? Could he kill a demon? Swordfish looked for the presence again. It was definitely there. It was something about this building…

"HEY! WHY DID YOU KILL RAINFALL?" Swordfish yelled at the demon. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL RANDOM DRAGONS?" Adnachiel still didn't fire. Swordfish could still feel no emotion from her. "WHAT DID RAINFALL DO TO ANGER YOU? WHAT DID HE HAVE TO DO WITH THE VISITORS?" When Swordfish said 'visitors,' the same blue light he had seen beaming through the dark clouds began to shine through the windows of the school.

That's when it hit Swordfish. This was the power of the visitors. Something was special about this particular world. It was broken, yes, but it also was extremely linked with the visitors. Their presence was strong here.

But what did they want? Were they on Adnachiel's side, or Swordfish's side? Swordfish could only hope they were on his side.

Suddenly, a voice whispered in his head, a female's voice. " _Rainfall had_ everything _to do with all of this."_ Swordfish stared at Adnachiel. She stared back. _"He had to die. I killed him, and I'll kill you and Vine too."_ She suddenly tilted her head, as if to get a better angle on Swordfish.

" _It's not your fault. You just have to die now."_

Swordfish swallowed. Those arrows killed everything they hit. The necklace had been broken. The world he knew had been an illusion. He was going to die, living nothing but a fake and terrible life.

What happened next was a blur. A pair of dragons suddenly attacked Adnachiel from two sides. They wore white hoods, and moved faster than Swordfish had ever seen a dragon move. They rammed her from two sides, knocking the bow out of her paws. One of them stood on top of her, pinning her down. Adnachiel held out her arm and the bow flew back to her. The other white hooded dragon breathed fire on Adnachiel, and Swordfish saw it was a Sandwing. Adnachiel swiped at him with her claw-weapons, and managed to hit him. He staggered backward, a trace amount of blood coming from the three scratches now on his chest.

Swordfish heard breathing next to him and saw the necklace pieces floating in midair. " _Vine?"_ He whispered, and she turned visible again. "Who are they?" Vine immediately asked. "I have no idea." Swordfish answered.

The first mysterious dragon was a Nightwing. She extended their claw out of her cloak and slashed at Adnachiel. But Adnachiel rolled out of the way, and aimed her bow at the Nightwing. But the Nightwing disappeared in a flash of blue light. The Sandwing did the same. Adnachiel turned in multiple directions, picked up her bow and opened a rift. She didn't have a necklace or anything, she just… opened one. She ran through it and it closed behind her, leaving Swordfish and Vine alone again in the strange dark world.

After they had calmed down, Swordfish and Vine turned to deal with the broken necklace. "Do you have any ideas?" Vine asked. "No. I know just as much about Abyss' necklace as you do." Swordfish replied. "On another note, do you feel the power here?" Swordfish asked. "…No…" Vine said. "This place is like the rest of the city. A big _lack_ of power. Not even the dragons here work anymore." Vine said solemnly.

"You really don't feel it? The power? It's the visitors! It has to be." Vine looked at Swordfish doubtful. "I don't feel any power at all." She said. "Well, I think I know how to get back to my home. It just might work. Just… don't talk." Swordfish said. Vine stopped talking.

Swordfish cleared his mind and took a deep breath. He was holding the remains of the necklace. He focused on the light that he could see shining through the clouds outside the windows. They were here. He thought about the world he used to live in. He thought about the hands that had stabbed him and Vine. He felt that same power here. Their presence. He just had to-

Hello? Visitors? Are you there? My name is Swordfish. But you probably already know that. I'm reaching out to you. Out of the story itself. Please. Help me. Make a rift open in front of me, one that leads to a world just like the one I used to live in. Please, if you have any mercy, make this happen.

 **All it takes is one.**


	22. Chapter 19: Home

_Rattlesnake hadn't left the bedside in hours. She couldn't believe it. He was dead. Cedar had taken one last life before he died. The blood loss had been too great. Sunny had left the room crying when it happened. Darkseer had been quiet ever since it happened. He had probably already foreseen it. Blizzard had seen the body, kept her straight face on, and walked away. Vulture had shed a few tears, and so had Delta, who was also crying for her brother. Scaleslasher was nowhere to be seen. Frigid's reaction was blank. Savanna had apologized for ever accusing him of being the killer. Typhoon looked and didn't say a word except "Well, you tried."_

 _Rattlesnake stared at Swordfish's body. She had cried her eyes out. Swordfish… he could have been the one that left the hole Savanna left before leaving the Outclaws to join Blaze. He was different. He could see things that others couldn't. Of course, Vulture could do that too, but Swordfish had something to him that reminded Rattlesnake of the way things used to be. When she was a young dragonet. They were so similar. Both of their mothers had been lost. They both grew up in a place that didn't care for them much._

 _And now he was dead. His own clawmate had killed him. The clawmate had been one of Rattlesnake's friends too. She cried for him as well. But Cedar had been lost for a long time._

 _She stared at his face. Blizzard had been the one to close his eyes. He now looked like he had been resting peacefully. The bleeding from the wound had finally stopped, but Rattlesnake still looked at his face. His Seawing scales, their interesting mix of ocean blue and a hint of dark green. His two old mysterious scars, paling next to the new wound that betrayal had cut into him._

 _He was gone. He was gone. He was gone._

 _Suddenly, Sunny walked into the room, she looked pale. She had wide eyes. "Rattlesnake." She said slowly. "Someone's here to see you." Sunny stepped to the side, and in walked a Rainwing dragonet, and then…_

"SWORDFISH!?" Rattlesnake looked down at the body in front of her, and then at the Seawing dragonet that had walked in. They were the same dragon. She ran to him and held him. He was dirty, and scratched up. He looked like he had gone through an ordeal. She heard his beating heart. _He was alive_.

Swordfish looked at the body on the bed. He was glad Rattlesnake was happy to see him, and he had missed her too, in fact, he longed to be alone with her. He could confess his feelings.

 _But that was_ him _on the bed over there._

Vine walked over to the bed, and examined the body, a look of shock on her face. "Swordfish… This is… you." Swordfish felt cold, staring at his own dead body. His eyes had been closed. He looked peaceful. The scar on his chest had nearly dried.

"I thought you died!" Rattlesnake sobbed. "I… think I did." Swordfish said, still staring at the body. "Then _how?_ " Rattlesnake said. Swordfish looked back at her. Vine was still staring at the body. Swordfish separated from Rattlesnake, and turned to Sunny, who was still staring at him with disbelief. "Gather the other teachers, and, Rattlesnake, gather our friends. We need to go somewhere private for this."

When Swordfish was walking away outside the healing center, shaking his head, he was suddenly pulled aside by a strange Seawing he hadn't seen before. "Heya Swordfish, why don't you come with me for a second?" "Who are you?" Swordfish asked. He studied the Seawing. He almost looked like his father, but he had a strangeness to him. " _It's me, Abyss._ " He whispered under his breath. Swordfish backed up. "Uh. Hello Abyss. Adnachiel broke your-" "Shhh." Abyss hushed him. "Let's go outside, why don't we? The walls have ears here." "What do you mean?" Swordfish asked, looking at the walls of the halls. Abyss sighed. "Nevermind, just follow me." Abyss began to walk towards the prey center.

"So… why are you a dragon?" Swordfish asked, still looking at Abyss, and how much he looked like his father. " _I told you to be quiet._ " Abyss said in a sharp whisper. The halls were nearly abandoned, as most dragonets were in their classes. When they got to the prey center, Abyss turned and flew out of the exit. Swordfish followed him.

When they were far enough away, Swordfish turned to ask questions, but Abyss talked first. "First off, I would like to commend you for figuring out how to use the power of the bridge." "The what?" Swordfish asked. "That last world you were in, that was something called a SYOC where Visitor power is extremely strong. The concept is that other visitors can create characters and they will be put into the story, hence, a bridge is formed. A powerful link between that world and the one the visitors reside in." Abyss began to fly downward, and Swordfish followed him. When they landed on a clearing on the mountain, Swordfish turned back to Abyss. "Is that why it was dark like that?" "Erm… No. The thing about that world was that the visitor that ruled it, left a long time ago. They tried to erase the entire thing. Without a visitor… worlds fall into… that."

Swordfish remembered the still water, the lack of light, and the dragons staring into space. Their god had abandoned them.

"Okay… Can you explain to me why _my_ dead body is in the other room?" Swordfish asked. "Oh, yes. That was my doing. When you told the visitors to open a rift to 'a world just like the one I used to live in,' that would mean the Swordfish of this world would still be alive." Swordfish's eyes widened. "Because you obviously survived Cedar's attack in the old world." Abyss finished nonchalantly. "So when I saw that this was about to happen, I simply redirected you to one exactly like the world you lived in, except the one who lived in this world, died."

Swordfish had to lie down. What was he supposed to do? REPLACE THE VERSION OF HIMSELF WHO DIED? Would anyone here believe him, or trust him? Would they like him the same? Would Rattlesnake still want to embrace him if she knew he wasn't the same him she had known before? "Oh, and Vine is fine. She didn't even exist in the world you knew, so you're going to have to introduce her to everyone." Abyss said. Swordfish kept staring into space, thinking about what all of this meant.

"Abyss." Swordfish finally said, standing up. "Will I ever be able to go back to my old life? Will anything ever be normal again?" Abyss looked thoughtful. "No. But if the Dragonets of Destiny and your friends cover up that this world's you ever died, nobody else will think anything happened."

"By the way, what happened to the necklace?" Abyss asked off-handedly. "You're not wearing it." "Adnachiel destroyed it." Swordfish said, but he couldn't think about any of that right now.

"If you're having second thoughts about this, you can go back to the SYOC." Abyss said passive-aggressively. "This world needs you. Copy or not. Who will open Rainfall's chest? Who will expose hidden threats to Pyrrhia? Who will change the entire world, for better or for worse?" Swordfish whirled around to look at Abyss. "What do you know? Why won't you tell me these things? Why can't you just _tell_ me what's in Rainfall's chest?" "Because that would spoil the fun for them!" Abyss argued back. "FOR WHO?" Swordfish asked angrily.

Abyss sighed, frustrated. "Look, you've been given a th… second chance here. You have purpose. You've been able to use other dragons, my own power, and even the visitors to get to where you are now, but a time approaches when you will have to do things on your own. Make tough decisions that could have huge impacts." And with that, Abyss' eyes shone dark purple light, and a high-pitched noise sounded out of him. His Seawing scales began to fall away and Swordfish could see black bones beneath them, and then his dark green robe began to bloom out of what appeared to be nothing. The high-pitched noise was so loud, Swordfish had to cover his ears. Not long after, the Abyss Swordfish had met in the void was standing in front of him.

 _"Make use of what's given to you, because one day, it could burn away."_ Abyss said ominously. And then he was gone. He had simply disappeared as if he had never been there.

Swordfish waited in the uppermost classroom with Vine, his head still reeling. He had explained what had happened with Abyss to Vine, who had no comments. She was probably still shaken from the SYOC and Adnachiel. Swordfish turned around when he heard the door open. In walked Rattlesnake, and behind her, Vulture, Darkseer, Savanna, and Delta. Delta immediately ran over to Swordfish and twined tails with him, tears in her eyes. "You… YOU'RE ALIVE!" She said in her loud voice, beaming. Vulture ran over and checked Swordfish's pulse. "This… How…" He said, his eyes wide. Savanna also stared at Swordfish with amazement. " _What in all the snakes?"_ Swordfish heard him ask. Darkseer simply gave Swordfish a nod, like he knew he had come back, which he probably did know. _Does Darkseer already know everything I've been through?_ Swordfish thought, to which Darkseer tilted his head at Swordfish questioningly.

"I couldn't find Blizzard. I don't know where she went. I know you told me that she isn't all that bad once, but… can we go on without her?" Rattlesnake said, still a bit of tears in her eyes. "Sure. I didn't really know her _that_ well." Swordfish said. Then, Sunny came in with behind her, Clay, Starflight, Tsunami, Fatespeaker, and… a Skywing. "Who is that?" Swordfish asked when he saw the Skywing. "That's Falcon. He just came here yesterday." Sunny said. "We found him wandering around outside of the school. We asked him who he was and he said he was an accomplished teacher in the Sky Kingdom. He said he had also just recently lost his teaching position, so after some interviewing, he's going to help out here now." "Hello." Falcon said. Vulture whispered something to Darkseer.

"I couldn't find Webs, by the way." Tsunami said to Sunny. "The Quartz Winglet was just chatting in there. I asked them if they knew where Webs was, and they didn't know."

When everyone had settled down, attention turned to Swordfish and Vine, and the feeling of everyone's eyes washed over Swordfish. All their disbelief that he was alive, despite the body in the healing center. Swordfish closed his eyes, and thought about floating through the ocean, letting nothing bother him.

"It all started when I woke up in the healing center, with Rattlesnake looking over me… Actually no, it all started when I first arrived here. I had a dream…"

 **In another time, at another place…**

Cassriel kneeled. Beside him, Adnachiel and Abyss did the same. They were there, in the SYOC. World Title: Possibility Eduaction. Visitor number: 7935554. A deleted world. Cassriel had been here once before. But in front of them, stood the King. His magnificent power radiated throughout this place. _"Now, explain to me, exactly what happened here."_ Abyss answered, almost sounding happy, like a joke had worked out in his favor. "Cassriel's little experiments escaped their world, and Adnachiel failed to kill them." Cassriel felt the eyes of his King sweep over to him.

 _"How did you let them escape? Why did you not kill them?"_ His voice had an ominous leer to it. "I tried. I had the entire world collapse on one of them. I had left the other for dead a long time ago." Cassriel braced himself. "I underestimated them. I now realize they are not so simple. Next time I see them, I will not brush them off." Then Cassriel turned to Adnachiel. "But at least I _tried._ " The King's gaze swept over to her, and she bowed lower. "I failed to kill them because when Cassriel asked me to kill 'two dragonets,' he failed to tell me that they had mastered world-jumping." The king's gaze fell back on Cassriel. "They can world jump?" Cassriel sputtered. "Impossible. That takes at least a year for a dragon to master!"

"Did you put anything in that world that could have… already taught the Seawing?" Abyss said slyly. "That little slip-up of yours that let the other one in could have really done us in. We could have _another_ one that figures it out." "No! That annoying gnat died before he could have taught Swordfish anything!" Cassriel retorted. "Right Adnachiel?" Adnachiel nodded.

"I killed Rainfall. He is dead, and he did not have enough time with the Seawing to teach him how to do anything of importance." The King seemed pleased with this. Cassriel noted how shaky Adnachiel seemed.

"On another note," Adnachiel replied. "I was attacked in this very world by two-." " _Silence."_ The King said, and Adnachiel stopped talking. " _Poet, I am holding you personally responsible for this mess. Huntress, you are also slightly responsible. You two must follow this, and report back to me. Kill the dragonets if you can, but if this gets too out of hand, I may have to call in The Destroyer once more."_

 _The destroyer. The one who can end it all._ Cassriel looked at Adnachiel angrily. " _If you two fail me again, it will be time for a new poet, and a new huntress. So go, squash this before it starts._

 _Or something will come to scorch the earth."_

 **(SYOC – Submit Your Original Character)**


	23. Winglet 3: Anniversary

Rattlesnake sat on a rooftop, looking up at the one of the moons, full and shining, and another one, which was very thin. The third was nowhere to be seen. It had been her hatching day today. She had turned five, and everything was so much different since the day Sixclaws found her in the alley.

She had joined The Outclaws, a group led by a dragon named Thorn. She dreamed of peace for the Scorpion Den, a gang that helped the helpless that this city had so many of. The smartest, non-evil dragons joined this group. Thorn also had a personal vendetta against three dragons named Dune, Morrowseer, and Stonemover, but they were more personal than anything.

Ever since joining The Outclaws, Vulture's enclave had been less of a threat to her. Her father had been granted safety by The Outclaws, after Rattlesnake told Sixclaws the story of her mother. Rattlesnake herself had also been helping the orphans again. She supplied them with food and water. She remembered one time, Thorn herself had once asked her why she likes doing that. "You don't get anything personally out of doing it. I grant you safety, but you have no reason to go out of your way and help these dragons." And Rattlesnake had replied, "When they look up at me with hope and thanks in their eyes. I know I'm helping those in situations akin to a one I used to be in, only they're even younger and… that can be difficult." Thorn nodded with a smile. "I'm glad Sixclaws found you and your boyfriend. You are as caring as he is resourceful." Rattlesnake looked away, embarrassed. "He's not my boyfriend." She mumbled. "Whatever." Thorn had said knowingly, and then walked away.

But now, Rattlesnake looked up at the moons, and sighed. Savanna had promised to meet her here, the spot that had become their secret meeting spot ever since joining the Outclaws. It was above a bakery, and the smells of the poorly made bread was somehow comforting. Rattlesnake looked around, wondering where he was. It had passed sunset a while ago, the time they had promised to meet at, and he was not here.

But Rattlesnake snapped out of her funk when she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Surprise." Savanna said. She turned around and brushed wings with him. "You scared me!" She said jokingly. Savanna suddenly paused, and looked up at the moons. "Wow." He whispered. "They're beautiful tonight." Rattlesnake sat back down, and he did too next to her.

"So… where were you?" Rattlesnake said. Savanna sighed. "I was down at the market when some thugs started harassing this little dragonet." Rattlesnake flashed back to when one of Vulture's thugs had her cornered in the alley. "I tried to ignore it at first, but they wouldn't leave him alone. They wanted the food he had bought. He kept resistin', then they struck him."

Rattlesnake gasped. "How could they hurt a little dragonet like that?" "I don't know." Savanna replied sadly. "I wanted to help… but they were stronger than me, and I was outnumbered." Savanna sighed. "If only there weren't dragons like that. This city would be so much better." Rattlesnake looked back up at the moons. "It's dragon nature, war. It's in our blood." She sighed.

Then, Savanna got angry. "If only it wasn't! If only there was somethin' that… _made_ them be good dragons!" "Well, nothing like that exists." Rattlesnake said in response. Savanna turned to her, and she could see the passion he had about this in his eyes. His black Sandwing eyes reflecting the moonlight.

"Hey." He said, his expression softening. "I brought you this." He produced a small, golden earring. It had two, snake-like dragons twisting around each other. There were intricate designs on both of the dragons. "Can you believe I just found it on the street?" Savanna said. "Like it was just sitting there waiting for me." "I love it." Rattlesnake said, and slipped it onto her ear. The earring was made of pure metal. It was truly valuable.

Rattlesnake and Savanna began to look at the moons once more.

"I love it."


	24. Chapter 20: Believer

**Three days after the events of Chapter 19: Home.**

"Hey come on, we need to go!" Swordfish woke up in his bed of shells. He looked up to see Vine had woken him up. "Oh… is that today?" Swordfish asked her, and she nodded. "Just give me a second." He said, and she walked out of his room.

Swordfish got up, and looked over sadly at the dried bed of mud that had belonged to his clawmate. Tsunami had asked him if he wanted it removed, and he had decided to keep it as a reminder of the personality of Cedar that had been his friend. Swordfish sighed. Cedar felt so long ago. So much had happened since that day Rattlesnake had been stabbed.

Swordfish had been having a tough time ever since he arrived here. He had had some trouble convincing his friends and the teachers (including that weird Skywing Falcon) that everything he told them was true. Some of them, like Sunny, Darkseer, Delta, and Fatespeaker, were easy to convince. Some of them, like Tsunami, Savanna, and Falcon, had denied it at first, but Vine had been undeniable proof. When she had introduced herself, Rattlesnake had immediately taken a liking to her.

The brutal truth Swordfish and Vine had hit them with made all of their heads spin. It didn't make sense at first. That there was a singular, untouchable world, and all the others were various versions of it controlled by unknown gods, but after some convincing, they had uneasily accepted it. The truth of the world, and only the dragons there knew it.

Things took a sour turn when Swordfish told them about the fact that he was supposed to take dead Swordfish's place. At first, only Darkseer had thought it was a good idea. "Abyss is right. I'm looking into the futures here. A lot of them… don't end well if we don't have Swordfish." "What do you mean?" Starflight asked him, and Darkseer began explaining the various futures without any form of Swordfish.

"In one of them, we're picked off one by one by the monster that killed Rainfall." "Adnachiel." Swordfish whispered. "In another, all I see is fire. There's one where there's an enormous battle ravaging what looks like the coast of the rainforest. I see a giant Nightwing attacking Jade Mountain." Savanna perked his head up, surprised. "A giant Nightwing? Could that be…Darkstalker?"

A strange silence fell over the room. Nobody knew where Darkstalker had been buried 2000 years ago by Clearsight. And how exactly was Swordfish going to stop that from happening?

Rattlesnake had fallen silent after Swordfish told her he was to replace the other Swordfish. She didn't even make eye contact with him, and Swordfish felt a twinge of his heart breaking, similar to like when Cassriel's illusion had fallen apart, and Abyss referred to Rattlesnake as "nobody important, nobody even real."

 _She might never accept me, knowing I'm not even the one she knew._

After a small vote with the teachers, they unanimously decided to let Swordfish and Vine stay in this world, and they would bury the Swordfish from this world. They also ordered everybody to keep quiet about everything discussed. Swordfish recalled the note Abyss had left Swordfish, which Swordfish had left in the grass world. " _Only trust those you are absolutely sure you can."_ "It's up to you to decide if you'll treat Swordfish the same as the…one you knew." Sunny announced to the small group of dragonets. Swordfish looked around the room. Except for that weird Skywing, and Webs, who would surely be informed later, the only ones who knew the truth about the worlds, and the demons were…a few dragonets.

After that, they proceeded to have a hasty and secret burial of the old Swordfish. His wound had completely dried, and his eyes were still closed. Delta cried still, even though Swordfish was right there. Rattlesnake also cried, and when Swordfish attempted to comfort her, she brushed him away without even looking at him. Swordfish took one last look at the face of himself before Tsunami and Clay began pouring the dirt over him. The old Swordfish would be laid to rest under a tree at the foot of Jade Mountain, with only a small marking Tsunami cut into the tree with her claw to determine it was him.

 _Here lies the body of Swordfish the Seawing_

 _4989 A.S. – 5005 A.S._

Of course, that wasn't Swordfish's real age or correct dates at all. They had to cover everything up, so that if anyone finds the grave, they wouldn't get too suspicious. After everyone had left the tree, Swordfish stayed there and stared at the freshly filled hole that contained an exact copy of him. This was his death. Swordfish realized that had he been the one who died, and another version of himself had been the one to come and live on, this would be the reaction. That could easily be him under there.

On the plus side, Rainfall's chest was still there, and still locked. When Swordfish had informed the teachers that Rainfall had apparently known what the truth was, and more, they themselves had Swordfish show them the chest. When they got to Rainfall and Frigid's room, Swordfish showed them the chest, and told them about the 8-digit code needed to unlock it. He described Sloth in detail as much as he could. Simple coverings, long brown fur on his head, and wearing a cute little satchel which probably contained the code. Falcon was the most shaken by all of this. Of course, he was the new one, and the dragonets of destiny had dealt with some odd things before. Swordfish felt bad when he saw Starflight and Fatespeaker comforting each other, and Clay nervously fiddling like Cedar did. He had thrown them into this dark situation, just like he had done with his friends.

On the second day, Vulture had come to accept this version of him. "You're just him, but from somewhere else. Like a doppelganger with all his memories and experiences. If I just think about it like that, I guess it's alright." Vulture had said, and Swordfish smiled at him, grateful to be able to talk to someone other than Vine and Darkseer, who had been the only ones to talk to him since the burial. Rattlesnake had started hanging out with Savanna more and more ever since the burial.

The only other one Swordfish had talked to had been Blizzard, who had at first kept her snobby personality until they walked into an empty room, when she stated how glad and surprised she was that he was alive. She had no problem accepting Swordfish, which Swordfish had found weird. He told her everything that had happened, and all about the demons. She asked no questions and had understood everything perfectly.

She never ceased to surprise Swordfish. "Why do you act like that when nobody else is around? Why do you act like this only around me?" He asked her. "Well… despite being in the third circle, I find a lot of the Icewing pretentiousness to be insufferable. It's what contributed to the Tragedy of Prince Winter. But the other Icewings here would judge me too harshly if I _didn't_ act like the rest of them. They could report back to the palace and I would lose my spot in the rankings." Swordfish thought about what he had learned about Icewing culture. How they had rankings, and it was everything to them.

"I guess, I show you because… you remind me of someone from my past, Swordfish. If you're anything like how he was, you don't feel like you fit in with the culture from where you came from too." Swordfish nodded. His life back home, and how he could never be a palace guard. "You know, Rattlesnake, Vine, and Darkseer probably would be safe to show your true colors around too. Maybe Vulture too, but I don't know." Blizzard's expression suddenly changed, like she was thinking about something rather sour, but she didn't say anything.

After that, Swordfish and Vine had a meeting with Tsunami. "Vine, you have to go to the Rainforest. You're a new Rainwing that just… appeared. Glory needs to know about both you, and about the demons. You're a Rainwing, and technically her responsibility. Call for an audience and tell them Tsunami sent you and it's urgent." "I get to meet Glory?" Vine said, and Swordfish looked at her and saw her face. A combination of excitement and fear. She had seen Glory shoot venom at Fjord during the arena battle. "Swordfish, I want you to go with her." Tsunami said. "Okay." Swordfish said. "I want to go see my family anyway."

It was true. Swordfish had decided that he needed to go back to his town. He needed to know that things were still normal somewhere. A place without demons or serial killers or alternate worlds.

And now, it was time to go. Swordfish yawned and grabbed his satchel of items, which held Rainfall's drawing scroll, the pieces of the necklace, and a map of Pyrrhia. When he walked out of his cave, he immediately ran into Savanna. "…Hey" Savanna said. "I… want to say I'm sorry about thinkin' you were the killer. I grew up in the Scorpion Den, y'know? You need to learn how to read dragons. Figure out motives so you can survive. You used to confuse me, with all your weird things you would do, but now that you… explained everythin,' I get it now. Well, actually I guess I'm apologizin' for the version of myself from your world. I guess the one I should be apologizin' to is the one buried under the tree out there."

Swordfish looked at Savanna. "So do you accept me as Swordfish now?" Savanna chuckled. "Well there's no point in _not_ havin' you still around!" "Do you know what Rattlesnake thinks of all that?" Swordfish asked, and Savanna sighed. "She hasn't said much to me about it other than 'I miss Swordfish.' Like you were still dead." Swordfish felt a feeling like a Sandwing barb piercing his heart. "I'm sorry." Savanna said. "It's… fine." Swordfish said, not looking at him.

There was an awkward pause before Savanna spoke. "So… where are you going?" He asked. "Actually, I'm going to the Rainforest with Vine, and then going home. I'll be gone for a while." Savanna looked thoughtful. "Really? You're going that far East? And you're comin' back alone?" "Yeah." Swordfish said. "I'm just hoping I don't get abducted by Cassriel or something while I'm alone. I'm willing to bet that Glory will come back with Vine though." "Huh." Savanna said. "Well then, seeya." Savanna walked away, and then began running when he heard the first gong ring, and then he was gone into the crowd of other dragonets.

Not long after, Swordfish was standing with Vine at the main entrance. Clay saw them out. "Good luck with Glory, she can be a bit skeptical sometimes." He said with a smile. Vine nodded cheerfully, now appearing excited to meet her queen. "And Swordfish, good luck with your family." Clay said in a lower tone, and Swordfish nodded. Clay had been the one with Tsunami to hear his story in the music room that time.

Vine took to the sky first, and Swordfish followed behind her. "Well, you first. You know the way better than I do. You have a map." Vine said. "Oh yeah!" Swordfish said, and took out the map. "This way." Swordfish said, and they began to fly.

Morning began to fade into noon, and into afternoon as they made the journey to the Rainforest. They had to stop at a few streams to drink water and make sure they were going the right way. Vine looped in excitement as the trees began to get taller and the leaves thicker, the forest denser. Swordfish really didn't particularly enjoy the rainforest, but he was glad to see Vine happy. She was so different from how he had found her, dying in the void.

As they began to go deeper into the forest, they could no longer fly, and had to resort to walking through the plants and weeds of the forest. As the birds began to chirp and make noise, and frogs and monkeys made their cacophony of peeping and howling, Vine began to look more and more at home, with her scales changing to match the forest floor. She was happy here, dashing around the large trees.

Swordfish didn't care for the rainforest as much. The whole place was loud and chaotic, a stark contrast to the quiet waters Swordfish grew up in.

Suddenly, a Rainwing appeared out of nowhere. "Ah! Good job dragonet, you caught the intruder!" He patted Vine's head. "Now, what do you want here? Run for your life! I'm threatening!" "This is serious business Jambu, he's not an intruder he's with me! We're from Jade Mountain." Vine said, and then looked shocked. "I-I know your name!" Swordfish jerked his head up to look at Vine. "You remember something?" He asked urgently. "Try to remember more!" Vine closed her eyes and concentrated, and then made a sound of frustration. "It's already gone!" She wailed. "Of course you know my name." The Rainwing named Jambu said. "I'm the queen's brother." "That's not what I meant, Jambu." Vine said, defeated. "We need to talk with Queen Glory as soon as possible." Swordfish said. "Ooh I don't know if I can do that. She's pretty busy right now with this Nightwing that ate the wrong mushrooms." Jambu said thoughtfully. "This is urgent. Tsunami sent us. Just tell Glory that." Swordfish said. "Well, I can lead you to her, but I don't know if she'll be able to talk." Jambu said, and then took off to the trees, where he began swinging from branch to branch. Vine followed him, doing it with ease, like she had done it before. Swordfish sighed. "I hate the rainforest." He muttered.

When the three dragons arrived at the Rainwing village, Jambu landed perfectly on a platform on a tree, and Vine landed beside him, laughing. Swordfish crashed next to them, his face full of scratches from branches. "How… do you do that?" Swordfish asked, winded. "Lots of practice." Jambu said, and then took off into the sky, flying to the left.

The Rainwing village was beautiful. All the dragons were beautiful colors. Gorgeous flowers were littered all over the place, like it had rained rainbows. Jambu flew into a hut that looked like it had been expanded recently. Swordfish and Vine followed him.

When they got inside, they saw a couple calm blue Rainwings, milling around. There were various cots inside. One of which had a sleeping Rainwing on it, with a bandage made of leaves on her arm. On one side of the room, stood a Rainwing wearing a crown made of flowers, and two Nightwings, standing around one of the cots.

"Hey Glory, these two drag…" Jambu started when the Rainwing wearing the crown yelled back at him. "Not now Jambu! I told you that this poor Nightwing is important!" Jambu turned back to Swordfish and Vine and shrugged. "I told you so." "We're from Jade Mountain! Tsunami told us to tell you it's urgent!" Vine said loudly. Glory turned around, and then her brow furrowed when she saw Vine. "Wh- who are you?" She asked. "We'll both explain. We must have privacy though." Swordfish said. "What are your names?" One of the Nightwings asked suspiciously. "Deathbringer, calm down. They're obviously safe if Tsunami sent them. How about you go clear the throne room if we have to speak privately?" Glory said. Deathbringer started to say something, but didn't, and walked out of the healer's hut and flew off.

"What's going on with this Nightwing?" Vine asked, walking up to the cot where Glory and the other Nightwing were. "Why is he so important?" Swordfish trailed behind Vine, not wanting to get involved in anything, but his curiosity getting the best of him. The Nightwing with Glory looked up from the floor she had been staring at, and she had tears in her eyes. "He's my husband, Truthteller. And he's insane!" The Nightwing began crying again. "Moonlight. I told you, we'll get him back." Glory said with confidence, but Moonlight kept crying. "Gone. Gone. Gone." She sobbed.

Suddenly, Moonlight's crying was drowned out by Truthteller opened his eyes, and Swordfish saw a shakiness in his eyes. His claws began to twitch, and then he began screaming. " _ROBES! DARK! PRINCESS! 3007!"_ His entire head began to twitch and shake back and forth, and he screamed even louder. " _JUSTICE, SECURITY, PEACE!"_ Then, his words devolved into gibberish. " _PRMT WZIPHGZOPVI!"_ He suddenly stopped screaming, and he closed his eyes, his body peaceful again. "I still don't understand what that means." Moonlight said sadly. Swordfish had to take a step backward, and take a deep breath.

 _Robes. Dark._ That night in Rainfall's cave. The four robed dragons with golden armbands, watching Frigid sleep like malevolent bats.

When Glory was flying Swordfish and Vine back to the throne room, Swordfish asked about Truthteller. "According to the Nightwings, he disappeared about a year ago, the day after the whole thing in Possibilty when so many dragons died happened. He just showed up again two days ago when these two Sandwings found him wandering the desert yelling stuff. At first, we thought the heat had just got to him, but after two days of water, shade, and comfort, he hasn't changed. All he can say is the things you heard him say." Glory said with a tinge of frustration.

When they reached the beautiful throne room, inside was empty except for Deathbringer and an old Rainwing. "Grandeur won't leave." Deathbringer said, exasperated. "I refuse to leave when something is so important that you have to literally _shove_ some dragons out the door. I've lived as a member of this tribe for nearly a century, and have even served as queen. I want to know what is so important that it could affect the tribe." Grandeur said elegantly. "Understandable, let her stay." Glory said, to which Deathbringer quietly stomped the ground in defeat.

After Glory took her seat in the throne, Vine stepped forward. "Hi. My name is Vine. I don't remember my past, and you won't find any record of me anywhere, because I'm not from this world." All three pairs of eyes, Glory's, Deathbringer's, and Grandeur's, widened.

Swordfish and Vine told the story of what had happened, Swordfish covering everything leading up to the point he found Vine, and then the two of them both telling about Abyss, the other worlds, the visitors, and the reaction back at Jade Mountain.

When they were done, Deathbringer was the first to speak. "That can't possibly be true." He said. "The ultimate truth of the world, and only a select few dragons, consisting mostly of dragonets, know about it?" "Do you have any better explanation?" Grandeur asked Deathbringer. "If this is not true, then how do you explain Vine standing _right there_?" "If you want total proof, you can go to Jade Mountain and unbury the other Swordfish!" Vine said, to which Swordfish turned his head to look at her.

"But this is ridiculous! Visitors? Gods from other worlds?" Deathbringer asked with nearly a smile. "Glory, you have to back me up here." All eyes turned to the queen, who closed her eyes, and said nothing. Her flower crown casting a light shadow over her eyes. Swordfish could see well in the dark thanks to his Seawing eyes, but even he could tell the room had become dark as it became night. Glory didn't say anything for what seemed like forever, until she opened her eyes, their emerald green shining in the dim torchlight.

"I believe you."

Swordfish sighed in relief. "Why would Tsunami and Starflight believe you if it wasn't true? Those two would immediately find out if this was false." Glory said.

About an hour later, Glory and Deathbringer had arranged a group that was going to go to Jade Mountain and talk with the teachers about this strange new information. Vine was going back with them. "See you later, Vine." Swordfish said, and Vine nodded. "You too." Swordfish looked to the south. To the sea that lay beyond the towering trees.

He was going home. Back to the quiet, dark waters.


	25. Chapter 21: Broken

Swordfish swam through the dark water. He had started to recognize the coral formations more and more. The large rock he had scraped himself on when he was younger. It was amazing. The longer he was in this world, the more he remembered. Like Cassriel had been suppressing memories. Swordfish realized that he probably had been doing just that.

Swordfish pressed onwards as the water began to become greener. It was green because of the large deposit of algae nearby the village. Then, it all came into view. The underwater village Swordfish had grown up in. He saw it, and a rush of memories he hadn't seen before started flowing through his head. It was amazing, he had spent six years growing up here, and somehow Cassriel hadn't let him see most of it. Swordfish stared at the entirety of the village below him on the ocean floor. _Well, this place is what you wanted, right? As normal as it's going to get._ Swordfish swam down to the town.

When he entered the village, Swordfish was pointed out by an older couple. Swordfish froze when they began to approach him, speaking in the Seawing language, Aquatic. "Hello!" The male one said by flashing his scales. "You must be Swordfish. You look like your brother from a distance, you know!" The two older dragons chuckled. "Hi. Uh, how do you know me?" Swordfish asked, not chuckling with them. "Oh, we're Typhoon's grandparents. You know, one of the other new Seawings at that Academy you go to." The wife said. "I'm Ray." "And I'm Cerulean." Typhoon's grandfather said, flashing his scales elegantly. "Oh… Hi. Uh… I don't really know Typhoon that well. Her clawmate got killed though and she's in my history class." Swordfish flashed awkwardly. "Oh. Oh dear." Cerulean said, his face dropping. "You _don't_ know Typhoon well?" Ray said. "This does not bode well."

"Why?" Swordfish asked, suddenly worried about how disappointed they seemed. "Well, go talk to your father… He will explain everything." Cerulean flashed, and then he and Ray swam off, flashing to each other urgently.

 _Well that was… odd._ Swordfish thought to himself. Swordfish proceeded to swim through the village, which seemed rather busy today. Various Seawings were out and about, milling around the town. Some of them gave Swordfish looks, and it didn't occur to Swordfish why, until after he saw his own reflection in a glass window. It was slightly warped because of the water, but he didn't look… normal. His eyes looked dark and shadowed. His tail was curled like a Sandwing's, and Swordfish put it back to normal, embarrassed that he had picked something up from Rattlesnake and Savanna. His wings looked drooped and almost crumpled. _So, this is what all of this has done to me._ Swordfish thought. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his back.

He turned around to see his brother Starfish floating behind him. He was wearing his armor that he received for being a Royal Guard. He was just as muscular as Swordfish remembered. He was much bigger too. Of course, Swordfish was two years younger than him, but Starfish was a big dragon for his age. He looked even bigger than Clay. "You're home earlier than expected." Starfish flashed at him. "Hi Starfish." Swordfish flashed back, attempting some form of a smile. _Well, guess it's time for family. Already._ Swordfish thought. "Aw come on, don't look so glum. You haven't seen me in like, a month!" Starfish said, and got Swordfish to awkwardly brush wings with him. "You look terrible." Starfish said jokingly. "You look like you survived a massive shark attack." Swordfish managed a small smile. "Yeah. Something like that." Starfish began to swim away. "Come on, I'll lead you to the new home." He flashed to Swordfish.

"Wait, new home?" Swordfish asked. "In the month I was gone, you got a new home?" "Well, when you save the queen, it pays off." Starfish said. _Aaannnnd we're back._ Swordfish thought, irritated. Ever since the initial shock and amazement of what Starfish had done had worn off, Starfish always flaunting it around had begun to irritate Swordfish. It made dragons compare him to Starfish and think less of him. Everything Swordfish did was overshadowed by it. His father began to favorite Starfish even more.

"We got a home in the wealthy part of town. You know, nearby Cerulean and his family. His brother is a noble to Queen Coral. We're really stepping up in the ocean thanks to me." Starfish flashed smugly. _Wow, you're pretty happy about killing the princess._ Swordfish thought.

"So, what was Cerulean talking to me about? Why were he and Ray all disappointed that I don't know their granddaughter well? What did Urchin do?" Swordfish asked, and Starfish's face got an odd look. "Father will explain everything. You may be a little…" Starfish paused. "Reluctant at first, but it's for the better." _I've got a bad feeling about this._ Swordfish thought.

When the brothers reached the large, new home, Swordfish was a little surprised his brother and Urchin now lived in such a nice house. It was made of stone, and was much neater than the old, dilapidated house he used to live in. Yet…

"Isn't Urchin going to miss the old place? Sure it was old… but it was mother's right?" Swordfish asked his brother. Starfish didn't speak for a small bit. He was old enough to remember mother. But he finally began flashing his scales again. "Mother died a long time ago. Father has moved on." Starfish said, and then added on "I think."

Swordfish and Starfish stood outside of the new home for a few seconds, and then Starfish said. "So? Ready to see father?" And Swordfish couldn't help himself. "Oh joy! I can't wait to go and speak to him again! Did you know it's been a whole month?" He said sarcastically, and then suddenly Starfish moved like lightning, and grabbed Swordfish's arm with the grip of someone who killed a princess.

"Don't speak badly of father. He has served the queen with honor, just like his father, and his father before him and so on! He also raised me, who single handedly saved the queen and many other nobility from that devil Anemone." "Okay! Okay!" Swordfish said, his arm starting to really hurt. But Starfish wasn't done. "And you're not gracious to come back to him? Someone who served our kingdom with honor?" Starfish began to dig his claws into Swordfish's arm. "I mean, you were never going to be part of the royal guard anyway, but this is borderline treason. Is this what that multi tribal academy has done to you? Turned you into a traitor? I mean, its own founders broke out of our prisons and let the Summer Palace get attacked by Skywings." "No! No! I'm sorry! I should have known better!" Swordfish flashed quickly.

Starfish released him, and Swordfish pulled his arm away from his brother. "Then let's go in." Starfish flashed with a menacing look on his face. Swordfish followed him meekly. _So much for things being different…_

Inside, Swordfish was immediately greeted by the grand room of the home, making his old, small house look like nothing more than a storage hut. There were still piles of stuff from the old home on the floor, which let Swordfish know that they had just moved in recently. Swordfish looked up when he saw his father slowly swim into the room.

Urchin still looked the same. The same look in his eyes. Like he had lost hope, and it had turned to bitterness. He still looked diseased, most likely from his consumption of a special seaweed that he had become addicted to. He looked at Swordfish and Swordfish could feel no sign of happiness in his eyes. "So. You're back earlier than expected." Urchin flashed at Swordfish, not breaking eye contact. "What did you do?" Swordfish flashed at him. "Why did that old dragon Cerulean act so weird around me?" A flash of something like panic shone in Urchin's eyes, but it died just as fast as it came.

"Really? Not even a hello?" Urchin said, still staring at Swordfish. "Same goes for you." Swordfish said, but he felt Starfish stomp on his tail, which had curled again. "I apologize. Hello father, so nice to see you." Swordfish flashed as fast as he could. Urchin just stared, but then released his gaze. "Whatever. Glad to have you back so soon." He said, not looking at Swordfish at all. "Yeah, why are you back so soon?" Starfish asked, the anger gone.

"Well, my clawmate, the dragonet I would sleep in the same room as, was a Mudwing named Cedar. I liked him, but he kinda killed a Skywing and a Sandwing, and then tried to kill me and my friend Rattlesnake." Swordfish showed his family the scar Cedar had given him. "Well, did you kill him?" Starfish asked, and Urchin turned to look at Swordfish, with something like hope in his dead eyes. Swordfish paused. _I could lie. I could gain father's liking. I could be seen as worth something to these two._ But Swordfish decided against it. It would be too hard to cover up the truth. It would be praise for something he didn't do. And he didn't want to be the one seen responsible for his friend's death. "I didn't. His own sister Delta ripped his wings and pushed him into an abyss. He fell to his death." Starfish looked disappointed. Urchin stopped looking at Swordfish again.

Swordfish sighed mentally. There was silence between the three Seawings. Suddenly, Urchin put on a waterproof satchel and looked back at Swordfish. "Come on Swordfish, let's go take a swim through the town." Swordfish whirled his head to look at his father. "Really? With me?" "Yeah. There's something we need to talk about." Urchin swam through the doorway, and Swordfish followed. "Do you need me to come?" Starfish flashed back to Urchin. "No." Urchin said. Swordfish and his father left the house, and left Starfish standing there, watching them go.

Swordfish and his father swam through the town. By the shops and merchants, by the small streets they used to live on, by the large coral reef Swordfish used to explore. They swam in silence, until they reached the school, and Urchin stopped. "I remember when I first dropped you off here." He flashed when Swordfish stopped beside him. "I remember hoping you would show yourself to be a guard, like your brother had done, like I had done, like my father had done." Swordfish felt a flash of shame, that he had been the one that had broken the tradition that had been going on for generations. "I had such high hopes for you, but I slowly started to see them crumble over the years. You time and time again showed yourself to not be someone who would live up to my expectations."

Swordfish was a little shocked his father had said what had gone unsaid for so long. Swordfish was a failure.

"But… I couldn't let myself give you away to your mother's sister." Urchin flashed, not looking at Swordfish. Swordfish was shocked. There was family he didn't even know about!? "You reminded me too much of her." Urchin said, and he turned to Swordfish. Swordfish saw the pain through his eyes. "You… were too much like your mother for me to get rid of you. No matter how much of a disappointment you were to me, I tried to act like your mother was still around. I knew she would never let me give you to Angler." Swordfish could hardly believe what he was hearing. "So I kept you around. I wouldn't let myself get rid of you, no matter how much I wanted to get rid of you. But when you left for that academy, I was finally able to move out of that house." Swordfish was speechless. He didn't know whether to be angry or glad or amazed. His father _did_ like him for something. He still thought he was a disappointment, but he liked him for something else.

"There's actually something I have for you." Swordfish's father said. He reached into the satchel he brought with him. "I don't remember much about the night your mother disappeared. But I woke up with this. I already asked Starfish if he wanted it and he didn't." Urchin pulled his claw out and produced a golden earring, with two dragons entwined around each other. Swordfish's eyes widened.

It was exactly like Rattlesnake's earring. Rattlesnake's looked older and more worn than this, but it was still the same. "I also had a map of a town." Urchin said off-handedly. "I lost it though. I don't even remember the town." "Was it Possibility?" Swordfish asked urgently. "Yeah. That's it." Urchin replied. "It had two red x-marks on it too."

Swordfish's head was spinning. All the things his father had told him and now this? And he wasn't even telling his _own_ son, he was telling the one from another dimension who had taken the place of his son who had died, and he didn't even know. And the fact that his father had gotten a map of Possibility from his mother, _exactly_ like the one Rainfall had in his scroll, that Swordfish had left on the shore, hidden away inside a tree? And Rattlesnake's earring?

Swordfish took the earring from his father. It was as golden as Sunny's scales. "Thanks." Swordfish said. "Alright." Urchin said. "Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about Typhoon." Swordfish grasped the earring in his claw. "When we moved to our new home, we moved into the same neighborhood as Cerulean and Aqua, and the rest of their family. Did you know that Cerulean's brother is a noble?" Urchin asked, and Swordfish nodded.

Urchin turned and looked into the sea. "Our family used to be more respected as a line of royal guards by the Royal Family themselves. We even got to attend a dinner with them right after you were born." Urchin kept staring. "Those were better times. Then your mother disappeared, and everything went south for us. We became less and less known and respected. We became common guards again. I turned to that seaweed. We became poor. The magic was gone."

Urchin then turned and looked at Swordfish again. "But then Starfish killed Anemone when she went crazy. The military now respects us. Commander Shark gave us his personal regards. But the Queen still feels bitter about Starfish killing her daughter, who was the only daughter for so long." Urchin looked right into Swordfish's eyes. "You are going to complete what Starfish started. You will bring us glory on the other side of the palace." Swordfish suddenly got an alarming idea, but he had barely began to flash what he was going to ask when Urchin said it.

"I found out you went to the same academy as Cerulean's granddaughter Typhoon. We arranged a marriage between the two of you. It may have taken some small lies, but if you can marry us into a noble family, we will have the family glory that my great-great-great-grandfather started back."

Swordfish couldn't speak. He couldn't find the Aquatic needed to say what he wanted to say. But he felt something welling up inside him. He couldn't… Not Typhoon. Of all of the new dragonets he had met, Typhoon was one of the worst, next to Scaleslasher and Scorch. Plus, Rattlesnake. Suddenly, what Swordfish was thinking came rushing out in his scales.

"Did you ever even stop to consider that I may not want that? At all? You lied to them? Do you understand that if they found that out, we won't just lose all our 'glory' again, we will also be labeled as liars, and that family would most likely not accept me! DO YOU _WANT_ ME TO HAVE A HORRIBLE FAMILY LIFE?" Swordfish stopped. He couldn't believe what he had said. He had been straightforward with his father. Urchin.

Urchin immediately flashed back with his diseased scales. "Just about what I expected from _you._ No regard to how this will make us move up in the world. It doesn't matter what you think. Her family has already agreed to this too. In fact, it doesn't matter what Typhoon thinks either! This is our chance to restore our name in the eyes of the Queen! Or was Starfish right, and that academy turned you into a traitor?"

Swordfish stepped back. Urchin continued. "Oh yes. It was a concern of his right about after you left. That you would forget your place back here. At first I thought it was just Starfish being overly-nationalistic again, but I can see he was right! Look, you even curl your tail like a Sandwing." Urchin pointed at Swordfish's tail, which was back to curling.

"Well, at least I'm not a diseased, lonely, jerk who tries to 'restore glory' through his sons for his own personal gain!" Swordfish shot back, angry. "YOU THINK I'LL MISS YOU WHEN YOU'RE MARRIED OFF TO THAT DRAGONET?" Urchin retorted. "I WAS GLAD TO SEE YOU LEAVE AND GO TO THAT TREASONOUS SCHOOL!" Swordfish shook with anger, and then began to swim away, back in the direction he came. "THAT'S RIGHT, SWIM AWAY!" Urchin flashed when Swordfish looked back at him. "JUST LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO. NEVER FACING THINGS HEAD ON!" Swordfish swam faster, and this time, he didn't look back.

 **Later**

Swordfish was flying back to Jade Mountain. The night was a cold one, and Swordfish faced the brisk air head on. _Marry Typhoon. Neither of us have a choice._ Swordfish thought to himself. He wanted to go back to somewhere normal, but he had forgotten that "normal" was a bad place.

Swordfish wondered how things had gone over at Jade Mountain with Glory and Vine. What was the next step in all of this? Swordfish tried to get his mind off of Urchin and Starfish with thoughts about the demons, and Rainfall's chest. Swordfish had put the earring in his satchel of things he brought with him, and he wondered if Rattlesnake knew something, and wasn't telling him.

 _I'll ask her when I get back_. Swordfish thought, and because of his wandering thoughts, he didn't notice the hooded dragons with golden armbands, descending on him from the night, until he was under their talons and screaming.


	26. Chapter 22: Cult

Swordfish screamed as he was pounced on by the hooded dragons. He felt two pairs of talons on his back, pushing him down. He tried to fly out of their grasp, but they had grabbed his wings too. He opened his mouth to yell at them, but a cloth was wrapped around his head and into his open mouth.

The two hooded dragons lowered Swordfish to the ground, and Swordfish head the sound of metal clanking as his arms were put in handcuffs behind his back. His wings were still pinned down to the ground. One of the dragons pinning him down then whistled, as if calling someone. Suddenly, a Nightwing wearing the same robes and armband landed in front of Swordfish. They stared down at him on the ground. "Is this the right Seawing? Is this Swordfish?" One of the anonymous dragons behind Swordfish asked, but Swordfish could tell it was a male. The Nightwing didn't break their gaze, yet still remaining hidden by the hood. "Yes. This is him." She said with a familiar voice.

From what Swordfish could see of her, she was rather muscular. She walked with power and purpose. Her voice was low for a female and made her sound rather angry. Swordfish suddenly realized who it was, and looked up at her, making a muffled "MMMM" under the gag, until one of the dragons behind him removed it. "S-Scaleslasher?" Swordfish choked.

The Nightwing paused, but then lifted her hood and Swordfish saw Farseer's face be revealed, her teeth glinting in the low moonlight. "Pronghorn, what did I say about keeping the gag on?" She growled. "Well, I thought that would be a poor first impression! You remember the Grandmaster's plan, right?" Pronghorn, an older student from Jade Mountain, responded. "And you're one to talk, you just revealed two of us to an outsider!" "Are you forgetting that he's going to find out who we are anyways?" The last dragon asked, still pinning Swordfish down.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Swordfish suddenly cried. "Farseer, Pronghorn, you two are Jade Mountain students? What were you doing in Frigid's room that night?" There was a pause before the third dragon said, "Actually, I'm a Jade Mountain student too. I'm Flame." Swordfish remembered the scarred Skywing who had been raised by the Talons of Peace.

 _So… there were four dragons in the room that night. Where's the fourth one? The one who had the dagger._ Swordfish's eyes darted up to the trees. _Is he hiding?_

Suddenly, Swordfish was yanked to his feet. The handcuffs he was in were connected to a longer chain, which was being held by Farseer. "Don't even try to fly away or I'll catch you again and rip out all your teeth this time." She growled violently. Swordfish saw flame take off his hood, and let his scarred face show in the night. He looked up at the stars. "We have until daybreak to get him to the city, or the Grandmaster will have our heads on spears." Flame said "Grandmaster" bitterly, as if he despised bowing to whoever this dragon was. "Don't question the Grandmaster's ways." Farseer said sternly. "His order and faith have led us this far. And with Swordfish and possibly our Keyholder being found so quickly, it won't be long now until it's all over." "Right." Flame said under his breath.

"Just who exactly are you?!" Swordfish asked, a combination of angry, scared, and confused. _Grandmaster? Keyholder?_

"Right, I believe an introduction is in order." Pronghorn said, and then began to recite something by heart, like a creed. "Born from the ashes of the war, we are the pioneers of the new world. We believe in the King, and trust in his powers. That he will bring the world to its knees, for its rebirth. We are the Darkists. Justice, Security, Peace." Pronghorn raised his arm with the golden armband into the air and made a fist. Swordfish saw what the armband had engraved on it. A seal with branches and an eye, with the words _Justice, Security, Peace_ engraved under the seal.

Swordfish was silenced again by Flame putting the gag back, but Swordfish was already speechless. _Where had he heard those three words before…?_ Pronghorn then took Swordfish's satchel, the one containing the map, Rainfall's scroll, and the earring, and put it on himself. Then, Farseer, took off and took the lead, pulling Swordfish along with her. Flame and Pronghorn followed behind.

The quiet journey west left Swordfish plenty of time to think. _OK, so I'm being kidnapped by the Darkists, the same dragons who were in Rainfall's room the night Rattlesnake, Cedar and I went to go search it. One of the four there is missing right now. Their group has a leader called the Grandmaster, and now that they have me and possibly someone called the Keyholder, they're getting close to something. They believe in "The King" and his power, and a new world. All three dragons here were students at Jade Mountain._ Swordfish decided this was too much to think about right now in addition to the Demons and his unwanted future with Typhoon. That is if he ever lived long enough to see it. Swordfish was tired from flying from the academy, to the Rainforest, to the ocean, through the whole ordeal with his family, to this.

The four dragonets flew into the desert from the Rainforest border, and never stopped. At one point, Swordfish picked up on a hushed argument between Flame and Pronghorn over who should ask Scaleslasher for a rest, but neither of them stepped up. They were both too afraid of her.

They flew straight through the desert. Thankfully, it was night, so the heat wasn't a problem. There was a point where Swordfish could see Jade Mountain, but when they got close, Farseer tugged on the chain that was keeping Swordfish captive and growled "Don't even think about it."

They encountered a few Sandwings, but nobody stopped them. They got some weird looks, but that was about it. It occurred to Swordfish that various anonymous criminals were probably commonplace in the Sand Kingdom, especially after Queen Oasis was killed.

Swordfish also had time to think about Farseer, the dragon keeping him flying. He thought about the few times he had talked to her, and his mind went back to the night Rainfall was shot by Adnachiel. He replayed the entire series of events that happened that night. Talking to Stonemover, getting lost, and then Adnachiel attacking, and two things occurred to Swordfish.

The golden object he had seen Farseer showing Stonemover had been the armband she was wearing right now. It had to be. But what had she told Stonemover that had made him angry? He remembered sneaking a peak back when the group was leaving Stonemover's cave and seeing Farseer showing Stonemover something golden and whispering to him, and him getting angry. _What had she told him?_ The second thing Swordfish realized is that Farseer had been just as surprised about Adnachiel as the rest of them, and had even attacked her. This made it highly unlikely that the Darkists were following the Demons, and this "king" the creed spoke of was the Demon King Abyss had warned Swordfish about.

Then again, Rainfall had acted like he didn't know what Adnachiel was, and yet, according to Adnachiel herself, Rainfall had " _everything to do with this."_

After tiresome flying for hours, Swordfish began to see a mountain ridge come into view. He realized that they had flown as southwest as they could go according to the Map of Pyrrhia. This was the Sand Kingdom coast. Yet, the Darkists kept flying forward, their eyes beyond the small mountains. When the mountains were crossed, Swordfish felt a strange feeling wash over him. An unnatural feeling. He looked down and saw the ground on the mountains was littered with bones. Swordfish just stared, unfazed by the mass of death below him. He was too tired to care right now.

It was sunrise when the dragonets came into an old, abandoned city. It looked ancient, yet Swordfish could see dragons of various tribes, all wearing black robes, milling and flying around. _Three moons. As if I didn't have enough to deal with, there's a whole army of these dragons._ Eventually, Flame and Pronghorn broke away, and flew off into the city. Farseer landed and dragged Swordfish through the ruins of the city. Many Darkists here in the heart of the hidden city didn't have their hoods up, but hastily made their faces hidden when they saw Swordfish coming through. The hoods completely hid their faces.

Farseer brought Swordfish into the old palace. It had a faded feeling to it, like it had once been a place of great wealth and power, but Farseer did not lead Swordfish into the main part of the palace. Instead, she brought him down a flight of stairs labeled DUNGEONS.

Swordfish saw Farseer grab a key off of a hook on the wall, and open a cell. Swordfish felt his handcuffs come off, but was immediately kicked into the cell, his limp, exhausted body falling to the cold, stone floor. "You'll be out of here soon enough, depending on what you do." Farseer said, and she closed the door and began sulking off. Swordfish heard a new voice say "So they brought me a friend, huh?" Before falling into a sleep filled with dreams.

In his dream, Swordfish was lying on the ground. He looked all around him and could see only black. Looking down, he could see land below him through the glassy floor. Looking up, he could see the orbs that contained other worlds. He was in The Void.

Swordfish tried to stand up but he couldn't. Dragons suddenly emerged out of the darkness, all wearing the robes of the Darkists. They formed a circle around Swordfish, and began chanting the three words from their creed. " _Justice, Security, Peace._ " They chanted. They said it three times before removing their hoods. Swordfish recognized many of them. Urchin was right in front of him with Starfish and Cerulean to either side of him. To Swordfish's right was Cedar. To his left was Farseer. There were other dragons too, like Typhoon and Truthteller, but there were dragons Swordfish didn't recognize as well. A light-green dragon that almost looked like a Rainwing, but didn't really match any tribe Swordfish knew was there too. Swordfish also noted two purple dragons that also didn't match any known tribes, one of which had a scar going down his cheek.

Suddenly, they all disappeared into dust as the voice of an old dragon suddenly rang out. "Don't worry Swordfish. This works out too. Just as the time Cedar stabbed you, and when Cassriel made the fake world attack you, and when you go to Mount-." The voice cut off as Swordfish awoke. When he opened his eyes, he could've sworn he had seen movement to his left, but when he looked at it, there was nothing there.

The dungeons were still dark, yet sunlight shone through a window on the stairwell that led down to them. Swordfish sat up, and he felt again how cold the stone floor was. "Ah, you're awake." Said a voice, and Swordfish looked to the cell across from him to see a Sandwing in there. Her eyes were a dark black, and she almost looked like Blister. She had small, black diamonds embedded along the scales on her wings. She had black tattoos along her horns and neck. "Th-they have more prisoners?" Swordfish wondered aloud. "Nope. It was only me for almost a year now. Until you came along last night." The Sandwing sounded sad and beaten down. "My name is Onyx." She said.

Swordfish remembered hearing about a Jade Mountain student going missing after the Tragedy of Prince Winter. "Yes, I'm the missing student Onyx." She said. "Uh… I'm Swordfish." Swordfish said. _Has she really been down here for all that time?_ "Nice to meet you Swordfish." Onyx said sullenly. "We're going to have to get used to each other because we're most likely going to spend the rest of our lives down here. Unless you do as they say." Swordfish sat down. "What… what do they want?" He asked. Onyx looked him right in the eyes. "For us to join them." She responded ominously. "Why?" Swordfish asked her.

Onyx sighed. "Well, here's what happened. I'm the only remaining heir to the throne that Blaze currently holds." Onyx started. Swordfish was shocked. She had so off-handedly said that, Swordfish had to stop her from continuing. "WHAT? HOW?" He asked her. "Prince Smolder fell in love with this dragon from the city named Palm. Palm ran away from fear of being killed by Oasis, and was able to convince soldiers that she was in fact her twin sister Prickle. She had me in secret, and ever since then, there was a secret fourth heir to the throne. Funny how that wasn't foreseen by that Nightwing prophet, Morrowseer." Onyx said with salt, and then continued her story.

"I had made a deal with a gang in the Scorpion Den that if they help me take the throne, I would pay them handsomely when I became queen. I had been attending Jade Mountain in hopes of finding dragons angry about Blaze winning, but I quickly found that this gang had more to offer than that forsaken school, so I left." Onyx sighed again. "Turns out, one of the gang members was part of a cult that had been started after the Tragedy of Prince Winter. Some say it began near the end of the war, but changed its goal after that whole fiasco. They believe that their holy king is still alive, and will lead us into a reformed world. They believe he will bring justice, security, and peace. They have about eighty members, most of which are still bitter about the war, which had a serious lack of justice, security and peace. They named themselves the Darkists, in lieu of their beloved king." Onyx paused, and Swordfish managed to ask a question. "Who is this king?" Onyx looked up at Swordfish and the dark dungeons seemed to get darker. "Haven't you figured it out? King? After the Tragedy? We're even in his city! They worship Darkstalker! They want to free him from his prison!"

Everything in Swordfish's head clicked into place, like a massive part of a puzzle just came together. A giant, immortal, overpowered animus who promised what the creed said is exactly who dragons still angry about the war would turn to. After the Tragedy, the story about what happened to Darkstalker was spread throughout Pyrrhia. Swordfish also knew he was feared and hated within the Nightwing tribe, which is probably why Stonemover was so mad with Farseer. She had asked him to join the cause. He was a Nightwing animus, why wouldn't she?"

"The catch is, they don't know where Clearsight buried him. Nobody does. So until they can find him, they will try to achieve what they can through any means possible." Onyx said, and then continued her story.

"Anyway, this dragon in the gang stole me away from them and took me here. They took me to the Grandmaster. The cactus licker who started it all." Swordfish remembered hearing about the Grandmaster on his way here. "He is their head of command." Onyx said. "He is completely anonymous to even his own Darkists, he never takes off his hood. All we know is that he is a Nightwing, and was horrifically injured in the war. In fact, half of his snout is encased in metal, and so is his entire left arm. Like fake scales. Because of this, he is completely mute, and has to write everything down. The Speaker does all the talking for him." Swordfish was confused, and he must have looked it too. "The Speaker is this rotten Sandwing dragonet who does all the talking for him." Onyx explained. "Anyway, I go before the Grandmaster, who asks me through the Speaker to join them. He says I would get benefits, and if they needed, they could assassinate Blaze and put me on the throne. They tried to convince me that if Darkstalker was ruler of all of Pyrrhia, it would be a better place. I said no. They offered to pay me, and I still refused to be their pawn. So they tortured me."

Onyx held up her left talon and Swordfish saw that three claws had been ripped off. "Then they threw me down here. They said that every time I try to escape, they'll torture me again, and judging on how far I got is how painful it would be. They can't have their precious heir die, so that's what they'll do." Onyx finished. "And I've been down here ever since. They only take me up to listen to the Grandmaster's speeches through the speaker, in hopes of changing my mind."

"Wow." Swordfish said, unable to think of anything else to say. A Darkstalker worship cult had been going undetected for a year. "Do you know who the Keyholder is?" He asked Onyx. "No." Onyx replied. "I know from speeches that it's this mystery dragon who will apparently help them achieve their goal of awakening Darkstalker."

Swordfish sat back down, trying to process everything that had happened. His mind turned to escaping. He saw the keys on the hooks with their corresponding cells, but obviously, he couldn't reach them. Swordfish looked around the cell, and observed every small crack in the wall. "Good luck getting out!" Onyx called to him. "I've been here almost a year, and I've checked every way and every hole I can. Not only are we in stone cells, we're underground!"

Swordfish still looked around the cell which had stayed in relatively good shape for being over 2000 years old. Swordfish sat down again, and he and Onyx sat in silence for hours.

Suddenly, a group of six Darkists came down the stairs. One of them grabbed a key from the hooks and unlocked Onyx's cell. "Meeting time already?" Onyx asked innocently. "New information. Emergency meeting. Be silent." The Darkist ordered without emotion. He and two others put handcuffs on Onyx and wires to hold her wings down. They led her up the stairs.

Then, one of the three remaining went and grabbed another key, and walked back to the doors of Swordfish's cell. "Swordfish, isn't it?" She asked. She was a Seawing. Swordfish slowly nodded. "Nice to meet you Swordfish. My name is Aqua." She said. She sounded old. "Sources have told us that you have been to different worlds and know of things called 'demons'." Aqua said. Swordfish backed up, scared and astonished.

The only people he had told were his friends and the teachers at Jade Mountain. "How-how…" Swordfish began, but Aqua stopped him. "Oh, you know how things just… get around." She said lightly, and she chuckled. "Well, I guess we really shouldn't gossip about others." And she unlocked Swordfish's cell.

Swordfish was panicking. _SOMEONE HE HAD TOLD WAS WORKING WITH THE DARKISTS._ Let's see. Who was new, weird, and Swordfish didn't know anything about? _Falcon._ Swordfish thought angrily. He just showed up outside the academy one day. He was a Darkist.

Aqua called the other two Darkists who had remained silent this whole time. They put the handcuffs and wires on Swordfish like they had done to Onyx. "Terribly sorry about this. Just a safety precaution, you know." Aqua said, and when she put the handcuffs on Swordfish, he felt how sharp her claws were. "Why are your claws so sharp?" Swordfish asked the hooded Seawing. She chuckled lightly again. "Did you know just how easy it is to chop right through muscle with just your claws?" She asked. "The cartilage too. Just _slice, slice, slice,_ and their claws come off." Swordfish went silent, repressing the urge to start screaming.

Aqua led Swordfish up the stairs and into the main part of the palace, and into the throne room. The room would've been amazing to see, how old it was, yet Swordfish could only help but think the mass of robed dragons ruined the experience. He could see members from every tribe, except Icewings. There was not a single Icewing Darkist.

Swordfish was pulled to the side with Onyx as the space in front of the ancient throne was cleared, and in walked in a large Nightwing, with two Darkists to either side of him. Half of his snout was metal.

When the Grandmaster walked in, the room became silent and the Darkists raised their fists into the air. The Grandmaster walked up in front of the throne, but did not sit down. Instead, he turned and looked at all the Darkists. He held out a scroll, and a hooded Sandwing walked out and took the scroll from him. Swordfish noted the way he walked, his swagger was familiar. Swordfish began searching the crowd for Falcon, but he realized he wouldn't be able to tell if it was the Skywing or not because of the hoods.

The Speaker took the scroll, went in front of the crowd, and began reading what it said.

"Born from the ashes of the war, we are the pioneers of the new world." He said. Swordfish felt like the world stopped for a second. That voice… it couldn't be… he had to hear it again. The other Darkists repeated the creed. The Speaker spoke again.

"We believe in the King, and trust in his powers. That he will bring the world to its knees, for its rebirth." As the crowd repeated the chant, Swordfish felt like crying. This couldn't be happening. Why would he do this? Farseer, Swordfish could understand, but this?

"We are the Darkists. Justice, security, peace." And Savanna raised his fist into the sky as the others repeated him. Savanna, the fourth one from that night. The one with the dagger.


	27. Chapter 23: Prophecy

" _Vulture is in place and Savanna is hiding somewhere."_ That is what Rattlesnake had said before they went into Rainfall's room that night. Swordfish felt like someone had slapped him in the face with an eel. Nobody had really _known_ where Savanna had been. The plan involved him hiding and coming out to stall for time with the killer while the rest of the dragonets got help, but Savanna wasn't hiding. It was he, Farseer, Flame, and Pronghorn who had been sitting in the room with their robes on, watching Frigid sleep.

 _Why?_ Swordfish thought. _Why were they watching Frigid? What's the point to doing that? We didn't even know we were looking for the chest until the time we went in with Delta… So they were just doing that? Why? What could Frigid possibly have to do with anything?_

Suddenly, Savanna began to speak again. "We have gathered off of schedule because of a revelation that has happened at Jade Mountain Academy." The crowd remained silent. "This world is one of many. There are other worlds that exist. There are worlds where things are very different. And with these worlds, comes a way to get to them. A way to break out of this world, and into one where things are different." The crowd muttered, like they didn't believe it. "Those are the Grandmaster's words." Savanna said, his drawl strangely gone when he talked in front of these dragons. "But I personally saw this happen in front of me. I saw two dragons, exactly the same dragon. Yet one of them was dead, and one was alive. The dead one was from this world, and the other was one from another world." Swordfish glared at Savanna, and Savanna snuck a glance at Swordfish. Swordfish couldn't see his eyes because of the hood. What concerned Swordfish more was how the Grandmaster slowly turned his head to look at Swordfish, and didn't break the look for a while.

"Furthermore, there are beings called demons, which control our world per order of things called visitors. These 'visitors' are gods from other worlds. They control the different worlds, but the demons are corrupt. But that doesn't matter for us!" Savanna said passionately. "Through these worlds, and travellin' through them, we can contact a variation of our King! Our savior from 3007 A.S.!" The crowd began to mutter again, but it seemed like excited muttering. "Through all the variations of this world, through the rifts, we will finally be able to find the King! The one who will save this world!" The Darkists cheered and raised their fists into the air again. "He will destroy the prejudice that each tribe has for each other! Unite them all under one ruler!" Savanna cried. Swordfish heard a snicker from Onyx next to him, but Swordfish was more focused on the Grandmaster, who hadn't broken his gaze.

Swordfish turned to look back at Savanna. _Why would he do this? What's his motivation? He lied to me. He lied to all of us. He even lied to Rattlesnake, the dragon he's known and loves. What in all of Pyrrhia could the Darkists have to offer that would make him betray and lie to her. He even attacked us in Rainfall's room that time when we stumbled across them._

 _Unless… this is an external force making him do this. Unless he was hypnotized or something. Or… Cassriel made him do this in the Old World for some reason, and when I went to a world "exactly like that one", it carried over? But what reason would Cassriel make this happen?_ Swordfish closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It seemed that whenever one question was answered, it created ten new ones.

Swordfish thought to times with Savanna. _He said on the first day of history class that he works for Queen Blaze after he left the Outclaws… Yet the Darkists are willing to kill Blaze and put_ her _on the throne._ Swordfish glanced over at Onyx, who looked bored. _So either he's not loyal to Blaze, or he's not actually working for her at all, and he lied to all of us right away._ Swordfish thought back to every time he had been with Savanna. He had interrogated him in the library that time, and Swordfish wondered if that was a skill he had gotten from the Outclaws or from the Darkists.

Then, Swordfish remembered that Savanna had been the one to point out Rainfall's chest when Delta took them to Rainfall's room in her excitement. Savanna had been looking at where Frigid had been sleeping. _Only three days after Swordfish had seen him and the other Darkists in their hoods, looking at Frigid._

The last thing Swordfish realized is that "Justice, Security, Peace" had been one of the things that sick Nightwing in the Rainforest had screamed. They had found Truthteller wandering the desert, just east of here. _What did he know? Was he a Darkist, feigning insanity for some reason? To get close to Glory? Does the Darkist agenda include finishing what the Nightwings started, and toppling the Rainwings? I have to warn Glory._

"Furthermore," Savanna suddenly continued. "We may have found our Keyholder, also at Jade Mountain." The crowd muttered again, excited and hopeful. "You all must recall Moonwatcher's final prophecy." Savanna said, reading off of the scroll the Grandmaster had given him. "Moonwatcher began to see what was going to happen after her death, right before Prince Winter came to kill her." The crowd fell silent again. " _Fire consumes the city of hope, dreams of peace are gone. The amnesiac holds the scarred one's wish, the sister plays as a pawn."_ Savanna read. "Those are the last documented words of Moonwatcher. The Nightwing's first prophet in 2000 years. We are the only ones to know of this prophecy, as one of our own members grabbed the scroll Moonwatcher had written in from the ruins of Possibility. We have long interpreted the prophecy to refer to our Grandmaster when it says 'Scarred one.'"

"We have scoured all over the place, looking for the amnesiac, the keyholder, and now, I, Savanna of the Sandwings, have found him at Jade Mountain." Savanna said triumphantly. "He was in my own winglet. His name is Frigid of the Icewings!"

Swordfish had already began to guess that before Savanna said it, but this confirmed it. _So… Frigid is important. That blank, empty-headed Icewing. This also confirms that there are now three amnesiacs. Vine, Frigid, and Mahogany. Well, Mahogany most likely just had brain damage from the war. Cedar did find him under a building. Also, all this time, and Frigid only mentioned to Savanna that he doesn't remember anything?_

"He told me in a class one day, when I politely asked about where he came from. What his life was like. He said he had no idea. He said he remembers walking through the snow with his mother, attemptin' to get to the capital of the Kingdom of Ice, and they were ambushed by four strange dragons wearing metal things on their heads and cloth armbands and wearin' strange mechanisms on their right forearms. Frigid hid in a pile of snow, and he saw her attack one of the dragons after a conversation, but one of the dragons shot her with somethin' fired out of the mechanisms, and she died. Anythin' earlier than that, he doesn't remember."

Swordfish looked over to see Onyx looking back at him. "Well, does that answer your question?" She asked. "Yes." Swordfish said, but in his mind he added on, _but it created new ones._

"Goin' back to what I said earlier, about the different worlds, none of that will come to pass unless we are joined by a friend of mine. Aqua, bring Swordfish here please." Savanna said.

Swordfish swallowed as Aqua, who had been behind him holding the chain, dragged him forward. She brought him up to the Grandmaster, whose hooded, masked face followed Swordfish until he was right there in front of him. She unhooked him, but the wires and cuffs stayed on. The crowd suddenly began lighting torches, and began whispering their creed's three values. _"Justice, Security, Peace. Justice, Security, Peace. Justice, Security, Peace…._ "

"Swordfish of the Seawings, this is a formal invitation for you to join us. The pioneers of the new world. Darkstalker will bring forth a new golden age, and you have the power to find him. We will grant you a safe place here in the Lost City of Night. We ask you join, not because we could always use a new member, but also because you have ties to that demon Abyss and the other worlds and demons. Would you use that to help a great cause?" Savanna paused, and looked at Swordfish. Swordfish looked at him. "Swordfish of the Seawings, do you accept this invitation?" He asked, and the Darkists raised their torches, the light shining off of their golden armbands.

The wind began to pick up. Swordfish looked over at the Grandmaster, whose eyes were still hidden. Swordfish looked at the crowd, all holding their torches into the sky. Swordfish looked to the side to see Aqua smile at him, and Onyx looking at him intensely. He made eye contact with her. She held up her talon that was missing three claws, and she narrowed her eyes at Swordfish. Swordfish turned away, and he looked back to see Savanna, and Swordfish could see his eyes under his hood for once. It was definitely Savanna, and he looked… scared _. Scared that I know the truth? Scared that I will refuse, and I'll be tortured in the same way Onyx was?_

 _Or is he scared of the Darkists themselves? Scared of the Grandmaster?_ Either way, Swordfish had made up his mind. He drew in a shaky breath. "I… am not going to be your pawn. The answer is no, Savanna." He said shakily. _You lying snake._ He thought. Swordfish snuck a glance over at Onyx, who was smiling. _You made the right choice._ Her eyes said.

Savanna looked surprised. "Really?" He sputtered. The Grandmaster, who still hadn't sat on the throne, took an ominous step towards Savanna, who stepped back fearfully. "Please Grandmaster, give me some time alone with him. He… I know him. He just hasn't made the right choice yet. I'm confident he will join us and the cause." He said with his Sandwing drawl becoming more pronounced than Swordfish had ever heard it. The Grandmaster paused, and then stepped back, and nodded.

Savanna reattached the chain to Swordfish and pulled him away. When they were in a long corridor, out of earshot of the rest of the Darkists, Swordfish opened his mouth to speak, but Savanna spoke first, taking off his hood. "Look, I'm sorry it had to be this way, but it's for a better future." "Savanna, are you insane? Do you really think Darkstalker is going to solve all of Pyrrhia's problems? He'll just make them worse! We all know what he wanted, to take over all of Pyrrhia!" Swordfish argued. "That's just what the queens want you to think!" Savanna shot back. "They keep us separate from each other. They keep the borders nice and strict. Why do you think all of the problems we face happen? Because we refuse to be united under one glorious monarch. Also, Darkstalker knows the futures, can pick the best possible one for Pyrrhia to go down. He can read minds, and can weed out those who threaten our peace. And to top it all off, he's an animus who found a way to have unlimited power!" Savanna said passionately.

"Darkstalker may have wanted for all tribes to be at peace, but we all know he tried to seize the Nightwing throne from Queen Vigilance. He wants peace, with Nightwings on top. You think that will go over smoothly? Peacefully? Look, even your Grandmaster is a Nightwing. He started this cult, but have you considered he's only in it for his own personal gain?" Swordfish argued. "Not to mention, you lied! You lied to me, you lied to all of us!" Savanna looked away from Swordfish. "You even lied to Rattlesnake." Swordfish said, a mixture of sad and angry. After a moment of silence, Savanna spoke again. "I did lie… but I did it because I knew none of you would react well, especially her. I planned to tell all of you. At… some point." He muttered.

"But that's not why we're here right now." Savanna said after more strange silence. "We're here because you have to join. Or they'll torture you." Savanna said pleadingly. "I… I don't want them to do to you what they did to Onyx. But if you don't join, they'll do it to you!" Savanna took a strange breath. "And you don't have as much value to you as Onyx does. _They might kill you for knowin' too much._ "

"Come on, I know you've had your fair share of unpleasant experiences with other dragons. That's uh… why… I suspected you of bein' the killer. Imagine if all of that could be fixed." Savanna said desperately. Swordfish didn't want to, but he began thinking about Urchin and the plans he made with Cerulean. About Cedar and Anemone, two crazed killers. He thought about Cassriel and Adnachiel, and all they had done. "This could be the path to fixin' everythin' wrong with Pyrrhia." Savanna said quietly.

"I-I can't." Swordfish stuttered. "That can't be the only way to achieve peace." "YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO ME SWORDFISH!" Savanna suddenly yelled. "I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!" Swordfish didn't speak. "Fine." Savanna said after more awkward silence. "I-I'll t-take you back-k to y-y-your cell." He said, and he sounded scared. He suddenly yanked the chain and began walking back to the throne room. "Just… do me a favor and don't talk. Don't make it worse." Swordfish reluctantly nodded.

When the dragonets made it to the throne room again, the Darkists turned to look at them. "So?" A voice from the crowd asked, and Savanna paused again before speaking. "He… refuses." The Grandmaster flared his wings, and with the strange silence that followed such loud body language was so unnatural, Swordfish had to look away, and noticed many Darkists doing the same. There was something… unsettling about the Grandmaster. He made Swordfish feel the way similar to how Cassriel made him feel. Adnachiel, Abyss, the other Darkists. They didn't have the same effect on Swordfish.

The Grandmaster suddenly raised his right arm. The one with the armband. He pointed at Swordfish. Swordfish froze. He looked under the hood that had changed position with the sharp movement. He caught a glimpse of the Nightwing's eye. All he saw was black, glinting in the sun and torchlight. "Yes Grandmaster." Said Aqua, who was coming forward. She took the chain from Savanna, who remained slightly shaking, as the Grandmaster turned his hidden gaze to him. _He's going to be punished for bringing me here because I didn't join._ Swordfish realized with a jolt. Savanna gave Swordfish one last horrified look as Swordfish was led away before two hooded Darkists came to either side of him, and he put his hood back on.

Aqua took Swordfish to the side with Onyx again, and then the group of six Darkists began to lead the two of them away again. "Hey, already? The meetings not even done!" Onyx cried. "Well, maybe things are different today." One of the Darkists growled. Swordfish and Onyx were led back down to the dungeons, and thrown into their cells again. Swordfish was shaking. _They're going to torture me. They might kill me, right now. And poor Savanna is misguided and might be tortured too and I may never get out of here and Adnachiel will kill all of my friends._

"Sure, the pain is pretty bad at first. That Seawings pretty good at her job, but is three claws really worse than becoming their pawn for control? You made the right choice." Onyx said. "We're going to be down here forever anyway, so better to resist as much as we can and be a thorn in their sides that they can't ever get rid of rather than help them achieve their goal of awakening that monster." Swordfish was silent. "We need to resist them. Don't give in to them. They consist of the evil, the misguided, and the stupid." Onyx said, flaring her wings, her diamonds shining in the low light.

Suddenly, a strange noise sounded from the top of the stairs. He heard someone start to talk. "Hey you! Stop-." And then there was silence. And then…

A hooded Skywing fell down the stairs, unconscious. Swordfish and Onyx stood up, wondering what happened, when suddenly, a Rainwing appeared in front of Swordfish's cell.

"VINE!" Swordfish cried. "SWORDFISH!" She cried back. "Hey. Be quiet, we don't want to alert more of them." Said another voice, and Swordfish turned to see Vulture, Rattlesnake, and… "Blizzard?" Swordfish asked. "Yeah. I came to help you, Seawing." She said with her false sneer, and then she dropped it. "I took your advice. I joined with these guys to come save you." "How did you know where I was?" Swordfish asked in astonishment. "We… followed Savanna. He was acting kind of strange and so we… followed him here." Vulture said, and looked over at Rattlesnake, who was just staring into the wall. Her old friend Savanna had joined… this. "Rattlesnake! He's not gone! He's just misguided right now!" Swordfish called. "You mean that?" She asked, uncharacteristically sad. _Well, I should expect different emotions from her now. From all of them. I'm not in Cassriel's perfect story anymore._

"Yes. I had a conversation with him." Swordfish reassured her. "But can you get Onyx and I out of here before I tell you everything?" "Oh yeah!" Vine said, and she went over to the series of key hooks, and Swordfish told her the right ones to get.

"Who are you?" Onyx asked when her cell was unlocked. "Onyx, these are my friends from Jade Mountain. Rattlesnake, Vine, Vulture, and Blizzard." "Hi!" Vine said, but Onyx brushed her aside. "Icewing. How in all the moons did you get through the Teeth of Darkstalker? That mountain range kills any Icewing that goes through it." Everyone turned to Blizzard, who smiled mysteriously. "Just because I'm acting my true self around you dragons doesn't mean you get to learn _all_ my secrets." The room fell silent until Rattlesnake spoke up. "Come on! Let's get out of here!" "Yes. Before they torture me." Swordfish said, and the group started to pick up speed, Onyx included. Swordfish noticed Blizzard was breathing funny.

When they got to the top of the stairs, Vine went invisible and scoped out ahead of them. "They're all in the meeting except for a few guards here and there." Onyx had told them. "Getting out should be a piece of cake, and if we run into trouble, we have a Sandwing tail, frost breath, and Rainwing venom on our side." Vine had gulped at that.

But escaping had been easy. The group scaled alongside the wall of the castle, and began flying away towards the mountain range. "So, who's this Onyx?" Vine asked. "She has been here for almost a year." Swordfish explained. "She's a lot older than all of us. She's the daughter of some Sandwing from the capital." Swordfish purposefully left out the fact that she was royal blood. Suddenly, Vulture called out. "Hey! What's that moving down there?" Swordfish looked down and saw something moving around in the city. It was small and walked on two legs, it had long brown hair and a satchel over his shoulder, climbing over the rubble of a ruined house. "It's a scavenger!" Vine said, but Swordfish and Rattlesnake looked up and made eye contact. It couldn't be…

It was Sloth.


	28. Chapter 24: Chase

" **The evil in the real world is often as bad, or worse than the supernatural evil." –The Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, about Stephen King's works.**

Swordfish immediately began to fly downward. "Hey!" Onyx cried. "Where are you going?!" Rattlesnake and Vulture began to fly downwards as well. "What are you doing?" Vine called down to Swordfish, Rattlesnake, and Vulture. "IT'S SLOTH! RAINFALL'S PET SCAVENGER!" Rattlesnake yelled back. Vine and Blizzard then descended downwards with the rest, leaving Onyx keeping herself in place. "HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" She yelled, and then turned and flew off, flying away in the direction of the mountains. Swordfish watched as she flew away, probably to never be seen again. _Well, at least she's free from the Darkists._

Swordfish turned his attention back downward to the scavenger, which still hadn't noticed the dragons yet, but just then, Sloth turned around and made eye contact with Swordfish. He suddenly ran into a half-collapsed building. Blizzard then landed outside, and peered through a window. "I can't see him!" She said, and then she turned to Rattlesnake. "So that's the tiny scavenger that holds the key to everything?" And Rattlesnake nodded. "Rainfall's pet, which we think has the code to that chest in his little pouch." Blizzard turned and looked up into the sky.

Swordfish wondered how Blizzard had gotten past the mountains without dying. She had brushed the question off when they were in the dungeons. _What was she not telling them?_

Suddenly, Vine pointed to the other side of the house. Sloth was running out of the back. The group of dragonets turned and began to give chase, except for Blizzard, who stayed back with a strange look on her face.

Swordfish began flying lower to the ground along with Vine, who was using her tree-hopping to go from building to building. Swordfish began closing in on the scavenger, who turned his head and looked behind him, his long brown fur flowing behind him. Suddenly, the scavenger threw something small and round on the ground, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"WHAT IN PYRRHIA WAS THAT!?" Vulture cried. Vine suddenly descended into the cloud, and disappeared along with Sloth. Swordfish could hear her coughing. Suddenly, Blizzard appeared behind Swordfish. "Come on, let's flap away the smoke!" Blizzard, Swordfish, and Rattlesnake flew downward and began flapping their wings to clear the smoke. When the smoke cleared, Vine was still coughing and Sloth was nowhere to be seen. "What was that?" Vine asked between coughs. "I have no idea." Vulture answered. "But it looked like a ball that contained a mixture that made smoke." Vulture stared after it with wonder. "That's… further advanced than anything my dad has come up with." Swordfish remembered Vulture said his father made war machines for Queen Ruby.

"Well, that's all the more reason we should go after him!" Rattlesnake urged, and began flying upwards to get an aerial view. "Wait, are you sure we should be doing this?" Blizzard asked. "That Darkist Rattlesnake knocked out is probably going to wake up at any second, and they'll start to look for us!" Swordfish stopped. She had a point. _But you may never see Sloth again._ Swordfish thought. _The one chance you have of opening that thing._ "We'll get this scavenger, and leave. It's just a scavenger." Swordfish assured Blizzard. _And we might be able to get it done faster if you help with your animus power. That is, if my theory is right._

Swordfish had formed a theory that Blizzard was a secret animus, like Darkseer, and she had some sort of enchantment on herself so she would be immune to certain things. It would explain how she got past the mountains, and how she didn't turn into a mindless black-eyed dragon when Cassriel made the old world collapse. Swordfish had seen her at the end of the hallway, still normal. It would also explain why she was so prickly to new dragons.

Swordfish was snapped out of his thoughts when Vulture asked him "Who are these dragons anyway?" "A Darkstalker worship cult." Swordfish answered him, and Rattlesnake suddenly descended from the sky, a concerned look on her face. "Savanna is one of them, and so is Farseer." "Her too?" Rattlesnake asked, a sad look on her face. "I knew she couldn't be trusted." Vulture growled. Vine and Blizzard were silent. "Speaking of her, why didn't her brother come?" Swordfish asked. He had noted the absence of Darkseer, who would've definitely been helpful here. "He said he didn't want to come." Vulture said, grinding pebbles in his claws. "I thought he was just being lazy, antisocial Darkseer, but… maybe he foresaw his sister would be here. Maybe he foresaw that the Darkists might want him for his power." Swordfish suddenly remembered with a jolt that the only dragons Darkseer had told about his animus powers had been Swordfish and Cedar. Not even Vulture, his own clawmate, knew about the animus power.

Speaking of clawmates, Swordfish would have to talk to Rattlesnake and Vine about his theory. They roomed with Blizzard, being the only three females in the winglet. _That is, if Rattlesnake accepts me as being Swordfish._

"They worship Darkstalker and want to awaken him. They want him to succeed in taking over Pyrrhia, they think it's for the best. Savanna also told them everything I told you. About the demons and the other worlds. They want me so I can lead them to a world where Darkstalker is already unburied, and lead him back here. They have a Grandmaster who leads them, and he got badly burned and injured in the war, and so he has metal covering parts of him and can't talk. We're also in the lost city of Night right now." Swordfish explained.

"Savanna…" Rattlesnake said quietly. "He once told me… right before he gave me this." Rattlesnake put her talon up to her ear with the earring, which made Swordfish realize with a feeling like a slap that the Darkists still had the satchel with the earring Urchin had given Swordfish, Rainfall's scroll, and the bits of Abyss' necklace. "Savanna once told me that he wished that something 'made dragons be good dragons.' That might be his… purpose." Rattlesnake said, with her eyes not losing the hurt and disbelieving look they had had since she had come here. She had been betrayed by someone she had known for years. Someone close.

"Well, let's go get that scavenger!" Vine said, breaking the awkward silence that had followed Rattlesnake's realization. The group set off again to find Sloth.

Swordfish realized with worry that Sloth was leading the group back towards the palace. _Just a scavenger. Just a scavenger. Just a scavenger. No big deal._ But that "smoke bomb" Sloth had used made Swordfish worry. Swordfish suddenly heard the sound of wingbeats above him, and dove for cover, inside one of the old houses before looking up to see it was just Rattlesnake, still looking blank and rattled.

Swordfish took a deep breath when he heard a noise to his right. He turned and saw Sloth crawling out a window. He had been hiding here from them. Sloth turned his head around and saw Swordfish looking at him. " _Damn it._ " Sloth said. Swordfish stopped as Sloth got out of the window and began running away.

Sloth had just spoken words. One of them didn't make sense, but it wasn't just yibbling. It was speech. Swordfish stared out the window in shock. _Sloth just spoke. That scavenger just spoke._ This could only mean that Sloth was… a demon. One like Abyss.

Swordfish suddenly snapped out of it, and burst out of the house. "Sloth went that way! Go after him!" "But that's even closer to the Palace than before!" Vulture said urgently. "They'll get out of that meeting eventually!" "SLOTH JUST SPOKE WORDS! HE HAS INTELLIGENCE!" Vulture suddenly used his large Skywing wings and went even higher in the sky, a look of determination on his face. "He spoke words?!" Blizzard asked, shocked. "Yes. I think he's a demon like Abyss." Swordfish said. "Come on, we're going to lose him!" Swordfish took off, leaving Blizzard with a concerned look on her face.

"I got him!" A voice called out suddenly. Vine appeared nearby with an accomplished smile, holding Sloth in her talons. The group gathered around Sloth, excited. Except for Blizzard, who had a look of worry on her face. Like she was scared.

"Can you really speak?" Vulture asked the scavenger, who was struggling against Vine's grip. "I heard him say 'Damn it'." Swordfish said, not letting his eyes stray from the scavenger. Sloth suddenly turned his head, and looked at Swordfish with wide-eyes. Sloth didn't say a word. But he didn't yibble either, he just stared. Then, he kept struggling against Vine.

"Are you sure he spoke? Are you sure you didn't just hear things?" Blizzard asked quickly. Swordfish didn't answer. _Maybe… I did._ He thought to himself, but then Sloth did something strange. He stopped wriggling against Vine and Swordfish realized his arm was free now, and he was holding something in his little paw. Suddenly, Sloth pointed the object at Vine and something clicked from the object. Then, a projectile of some sort flew out of it and caught Vine in the face. It exploded in a flash so bright, Swordfish temporarily couldn't see. All he could see was white, blinding light. Swordfish heard a quiet ringing noise, and the sounds of Rattlesnake and Vulture yelling.

When Swordfish rubbed his eyes enough and could see again, Vine was down on the ground, and Sloth was gone again. "Three moons!" Rattlesnake exclaimed. "What in all the snakes is going on?" "I don't know." Vulture replied, staring at Vine's face, whose eyes were still closed. "It's like… that was _made_ to combat a dragon." Swordfish looked at Vine's face too. _Three moons Rainfall. Who were you?_ _What did you do?_

Suddenly, Blizzard pointed into the sky. "Everyone hide. Right now." Swordfish looked up to see a group of hooded dragons in the distance. Swordfish ducked back into the house he had been hiding in, and so did Vulture. Rattlesnake jumped through the window of another building, and Blizzard went into another home. Swordfish looked out the window and saw Rattlesnake across the street. She looked like she was freaking out about something. Swordfish made eye contact with her and she began pointing at Vine, who was still unconscious on the street. "We'll never make it to her in time!" Vulture said urgently, who was now looking out the window too.

Suddenly, Blizzard dashed out, and dragged Vine into the house where she was with incredible speed. " _Whoa."_ Swordfish whispered under his breath. Blizzard had never demonstrated just how fast she was. Swordfish and Vulture hid in silence, and got away from all windows. Swordfish could hear Vulture breathing heavily nearby, and looked and saw him drawing lines in the dirty floor with his claw. Swordfish strained his ears to hear the wingbeats go overhead. Swordfish and Vulture waited bit longer, until they left the house. Rattlesnake did the same, and so did Blizzard, who carried Vine out again.

"That… was close." Vulture said, relieved. "Yeah. They almost would've gotten Vine." Rattlesnake said. "Thank you so much Blizzard." She said, and Blizzard didn't look at her. "Oh… it's nothing…" She said, and she sounded strange. She kept her face down, but Swordfish could've sworn he caught something like a tear slide off her face. _Blizzard… is crying? What? Why?_ Suddenly, Vine made a groaning noise. "She's awake." Vulture stated. Vine made another groaning noise, and then turned invisible. " _Look…up_ " She whispered.

Swordfish suddenly felt talons on his back. He fell to the ground. He looked up and saw Darkists slamming every dragonet down to the ground, and Swordfish growled in defeat. Blizzard's face hit the ground, and Swordfish could see the streaks the tears had left on her face. "You've made a big mistake escaping Swordfish." Said the voice of Aqua. "The Grandmaster's plan worked." Said another Darkist, a Mudwing. "Looping back on ourselves. Stupid dragonets." She chuckled. Swordfish only watched helplessly as he and his friends were cuffed, gagged, and their wings were wired up. _They came to help me and now they'll be trapped here forever with me too._ "Bayou, take all remaining and go look for the princess. She can't get out of here and tell the world about us." The other Darkist who spoke nodded and five others took off to the sky with her. Rattlesnake looked at Swordfish with confusion in her eyes. _Oh right, I didn't tell them Onyx is an heir to the Sandwing throne._ _Maybe I should have._

"So, Swordfish." Aqua said in her sweet, old voice. Her large form now making her seem even scarier. "What did we learn today?" Swordfish couldn't answer because of the gag. "Maybe that you should listen to orders. Maybe that you should do what's right for the overall benefit of dragons. Or maybe that you shouldn't depend on your friends like this, because now they might all be tortured too."

Swordfish closed his eyes and tried not to cry from all the worry that was now swarming his head. Everything was crashing down. The Darkists took to the sky and began escorting the dragonets back towards the palace. Swordfish looked around at all of them. Rattlesnake, who looked angry. Vulture, who looked sad. Blizzard, who had stopped crying and now looked like she was planning something. _They didn't get Vine!_ Swordfish realized with a jolt of hope. _She turned invisible!_ Swordfish looked around. He couldn't see her. Was she truly awake yet? Did she see where they went? Was she following them right now?

They flew in silence until they reached the town square outside the palace. There were glass statues of Nightwings that looked like they had been broken long ago. There were four robed dragons waiting there, their wings folded. Two Sandwings, a Nightwing, and a Skywing. _Savanna, Farseer, Flame, and Pronghorn._ Swordfish said to himself. All four Jade Mountain Darkists were gathered here. Swordfish noted that Pronghorn was still wearing Swordfish's satchel of things. When they landed, Savanna sighed and took off his hood, and signaled for the others to take off theirs, who reluctantly obliged. _He must have some power over them._ Swordfish noted. _Well, being Speaker probably has its benefits._ Swordfish stood quietly, and Savanna spoke to the captors. "Can I please speak to the Sandwing?" He asked. Rattlesnake's captor took the gag out. Rattlesnake had a look of anger in her eyes unlike anything Swordfish had seen. "What. Are. You. Doing?" She growled, and Swordfish saw a bit of smoke start to come out of her mouth.

"Rattlesnake. I… I planned to tell you eventually. I wanted to show you the good side of this. I didn't want this. I didn't want it to happen like this." Savanna said, an upset look on his face. The other Darkists remained silent. "This. All of this can be for the better." Savanna continued. Rattlesnake kept staring at him. "You remember how evil those thugs in the Scorpion Den are! You remember the brutal war! How or kingdom was ground zero for it! Darkstalker can fix all of that!" There was a pause before Rattlesnake's mouth stopped smoking. "You really think it was worth lying to all of us? To me? I've known you for years." Swordfish saw the other three Jade Mountain Darkists now looking at Savanna, still expressionless.

Swordfish heard a noise, and he saw the Mudwing named Bayou and the group she took land by Aqua. "I think Onyx already escaped." Bayou said angrily. Swordfish could hardly pay attention to Aqua and Bayou's conversation or Rattlesnake and Savanna's argument though. He was watching Pronghorn, who was standing still, but Swordfish's satchel seemed to be opening on its own. _Vine._ Swordfish realized. Swordfish watched as Vine silently pickpocketed the necklace, the earring, and Rainfall's scroll out of the satchel.

Swordfish then turned his attention back to Rattlesnake and Savanna. Swordfish watched as Savanna took the handcuffs and wires off of Rattlesnake. "I am goin' to speak to Rattlesnake alone." He announced. "All of the rest of you can take care of those three." Savanna walked away with Rattlesnake behind him. "Don't kill them!" He called back, before walking away.

"Well, you three have caused quite the headache!" Aqua said in her sweet voice that Swordfish had begun to hate. "Especially you, Swordfish! And Icewing, how did you manage to get in here?" Swordfish counted how many Darkists were here right now. There was Farseer and the other two Jade Mountain students, Aqua and the other three who caught Swordfish and the others, and Bayou and the other five who went to look for Onyx. _That makes a 4 vs. 14 situation._ Swordfish had been taught things like this when his father wanted him to become a guard.

 _Come on Vine! Do something!_ Swordfish thought. He still was gagged. "What do you want us to do to them Aqua?" Asked the Darkist who was holding Vulture captive. "Hmmmm… how about you cut…" Swordfish heard a rustling in a nearby tree, and a familiar clicking noise. He, Vuluture, and Blizzard all looked at each other and slammed their eyes shut.

 _BANG!_ Went Sloth's disorienting weapon. Swordfish heard the yelling and screaming of the Darkists. "WHAT WAS THAT?" He heard Farseer roar. Swordfish suddenly felt his arms be freed and a voice whisper in his ear. "Let's get out of here!" It was Vine. Swordfish felt his wings be freed as he took out his gag. Swordfish went and began freeing Vulture as Vine quickly freed Blizzard. "This is for saving me earlier." Vine said, becoming visible. Swordfish spread out his wings and looked up at the tree the weapon had been fired from. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Swordfish heard Farseer yell. He looked over to see that the Jade Mountain Darkists hadn't been as hit hardly as the others, who were still wandering around disoriented. Vulture took to the sky and Flame followed him. _Oh no… Vulture isn't that good at fighting and Flame was trained by the Talons…_ Swordfish wondered before he saw Farseer take out a spear and run at him from across the square. Swordfish took to the sky as well when he saw Blizzard run forward at Farseer.

Farseer put up her guard, and a good one at that. Farseer was bigger than Blizzard by quite a bit, yet Swordfish watched with awe as Blizzard broke through it with ease and used her serrated Icewing claws to slice all the way down Farseer's face.

Farseer stumbled back. Blizzard's entire talon was now covered in red blood, but Blizzard didn't even flinch at the sight. She attacked again. Farseer glared through the blood and suddenly breathed fire in a spout at Blizzard. Blizzard flinched and fell backward, the fire probably hurting her Icewing body more than a normal dragon would be affected by it.

Suddenly, Swordfish felt claws rip into his back. One of the various Darkists attacked him. Swordfish did a spin move Starfish taught him, and it was the only one he was good at. Swordfish spun to the left, and then did another spin to attack the Darkist with his strong Seawing tail. The Darkist fell backward and Swordfish saw that it was a Rainwing. _What is a Rainwing doing with the Darkists?_ The Rainwing righted himself in the air and attacked Swordfish. Swordfish dodged downward, scared of the venom that the Rainwing might shoot from his fangs.

Swordfish flew downward, back down towards the tree Sloth had fired the weapon from. The Rainwing followed him. Swordfish stopped flying down near the top of the tree and the Rainwing smiled. Swordfish suddenly realized this is what he wanted. The Rainwing could probably fight better on the trees. The Rainwing suddenly put on a burst of speed and slammed Swordfish into the treetop. Swordfish fell through the branches before coming to a stop inside the old, dense tree. He felt something climb onto him, but he had no time to think about it.

Swordfish flew out of the tree, but the Rainwing attacked him from the left. Swordfish put out his arm to stop him and watched with amazement as Sloth himself crawled off of Swordfish's back and ran down his arm to jump onto the Rainwing's head. Swordfish watched in surprise and amazement as Sloth pulled something from his waist, and pointed it at the Rainwing's head in front of his ear. Swordfish heard a loud _BANG!_ As the projectile shot out of the weapon and through the Rainwing's head entirely. Blood came out the other end. There was now a sizeable hole straight through the Rainwing's head. Swordfish watched in amazement and horror as the dragon began to fall down to the ground with Sloth on top of it.

Swordfish looked down to see Rattlesnake and Savanna walking back towards the battle. Swordfish looked at the battle to see Vulture and Blizzard were surrounded, before Blizzard suddenly lunged forward at one of the Darkists, and they flew out of sight, now battling in the air. Swordfish suddenly felt the strong talons of Aqua grab him from behind. "You have caused nothing but trouble." She growled. "I'm going to have fun clawing out your eyes." She forced him down with her to the battlefield.

Swordfish was thrown next to Vulture, who was completely surrounded by Darkists. Swordfish was shaking. Blizzard was nowhere to be seen. He looked over to see Rattlesnake start yelling at Savanna, and then strike him with her wing. Swordfish saw the body of the Rainwing with no sign of Sloth on it, and Farseer, who was lying on the ground being treated by Pronghorn. Suddenly, Vine became visible again, and attempted to attack Pronghorn, but Bayou ran out of the group and tackled Vine out of the air. Bayou brought Vine with her, and now Swordfish, Vulture, and Vine were completely surrounded. "Alright. Half of you go get that Icewing, half of you go into the desert and look for Onyx. She couldn't have gotten far!" Aqua ordered. "Let Bayou and I deal with these worms."

The Darkists dispersed, and left the three dragonets alone with Aqua and Bayou. The wind picked up, and Swordfish couldn't hear anything for a second. "I say we just kill them." Bayou said. "The Grandmaster won't let us kill Swordfish." Aqua said "So, let's kill the other two." Bayou suggested, a murderous smile on her half-hidden face. "Oh, certainly." Aqua said in her voice again. They turned to Vine and Vulture.

Suddenly, a dragon launched out of hiding. She slammed into the Darkists sideways, slicing her claws across Aqua's face, simultaneously breathing fire on her. Her Sandwing tail stabbed right through Bayou's heart with such force, Bayou immediately fell to the ground, the poisoned wound bleeding profusely. Swordfish looked at the attacker. It was Onyx.

"Now I've repaid the favor." She said. She looked over at Bayou who was struggling on the ground. "Oh, come on, it's not like you had some great destiny ahead of you." Onyx said, stomping her talons into the wound. Bayou died on the spot, her limbs going limp.

Swordfish got up shakily. "Three moons." Vulture whispered. Vine stared at the body. "There… was no other way… was there? It was us or her…" She said, her scales now completely pale green. Suddenly, Rattlesnake ran up to the group. "Come on." She said, a mixture of repulsed, angry, and scared. "We're leaving."

"Onyx… thank you." Swordfish said. Onyx snorted. "My pleasure. Bayou was Aqua's rotten little sidekick. Speaking of her…" Onyx turned her attention to the injured body of Aqua, who had begun to crawl away. "I've got something to say to you!" Onyx yelled angrily. "Actually, so do all of my remaining claws!" Onyx began to walk threateningly over to the body of Aqua, who had a look of anger and fear on her face. "WATCH OUT!" Vine suddenly cried. Another Darkist suddenly tackled Onyx, who fell down with a snarl. The Darkist raised their claws, Onyx's throat exposed.

Suddenly, Swordfish's fear took on a new shape as an arrow suddenly was shot into the Darkist's back. He died right there, on top of Onyx. Swordfish looked up to see Adnachiel perched on the tree Sloth had been on. She stared right at him. Swordfish pointed and Vine looked up and began screaming. "WHAT IS THAT?" Onyx cried, and the demon took another arrow out of her quiver. The injured Farseer suddenly stood up, and picked up a spear, and chucked it at the demon. The injury Blizzard had given Farseer must have affected her throwing though, because it fell short. Farseer suddenly ran away, and didn't look back. _She must be scared of her._ Swordfish remembered their battle on the mountain that time, how Adnachiel had injured Farseer.

"We need to go." Swordfish said urgently, and the group of dragonets began to take off. "Wait!" Vine said. "What about Blizzard?!" "She's gone!" Onyx said gruffly. "Did you see how many Darkists were after her!?" Swordfish stared in the direction Blizzard had gone, before Adnachiel leaping off of the tree snapped him back to his fear.

"COME ON!" Onyx cried. The group began to take off, leaving Aqua behind with Adnachiel, and Blizzard nowhere in sight. Swordfish was about to take off when a talon grabbed his tail, and yanked him back. Swordfish fell to the ground. "NO! NOT YET!" Said the voice of Savanna. He was holding a spear. He had tears in his eyes. He put his foot on top of Swordfish's body. Swordfish grabbed the spear Bayou had had. "I… didn't want to hurt any of you." He said. "But you leave me no choice now. Darkstalker's rule _will_ become a reality." Savanna plunged the spear downwards towards Swordfish, but Swordfish blocked him with his spear. "SAVANNA! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" Rattlesnake cried.

Savanna closed his eyes and Swordfish saw another set of teardrops leak out. Savanna's grip loosened. "If you would just join for a while, you would understand. The Grandmaster's plans and Darkstalker's ideas and abilities can change Pyrrhia for the better. But you refuse! WHY?!" Savanna cried, and then he pushed harder on Swordfish's defense. "Come on! Remember what I told you! RESIST!" Onyx yelled.

Swordfish suddenly saw an arrow whiz between himself and Savanna. Savanna turned his head to look in the direction it was fired from. "No. Don't tell me that's Adnach-." Savanna was cut off when Swordfish pushed with his spear on Savanna's defense, and knocked him away. Swordfish put up his defense and Savanna attacked again, easily getting through Swordfish's defense and knocking him to the ground again. Swordfish remembered Savanna had prided himself on being one of the best weapon-wielders in the Outclaws on the first day. "Was it _you_ who changed Rattlesnake on me?!" Savanna growled, and he began inhaling to breathe fire. Swordfish closed his eyes and braced for the pain when he heard another _BANG!_

Swordfish opened his eyes to hear the ringing of Sloth's disorienting weapon. He looked up at Savanna, who backed away. "WHAT'S GOIN' ON!?" He roared, when Swordfish saw Sloth, running on the ground, with his other weapon. The one that killed the Rainwing. Sloth fired the weapon at Savanna's ankle. _BANG!_ Swordfish got some of the blood on him as Savanna fell to the ground, screaming. Swordfish watched as Sloth easily climbed up onto Savanna, and took Savanna's necklace off. The one with the dagger-shaped stone. Savanna fell to the ground in pain, and Swordfish got up. "Let's go!" Vulture said, when Sloth fired the flash again. Swordfish was flashed again and so was everyone else. The ringing overtook Savanna's screams. Swordfish began to fly up blindly until he could see again. The dragons took to the sky. Vine first, then Swordfish behind her. Vulture followed him, and Rattlesnake was behind him.

Onyx was about to take off when suddenly, Aqua had gotten back on her feet, and tackled her. The Darkists who had been attacking Blizzard came back. "NO!" Swordfish yelled. "YOU CACTUS-." Onyx began when the Darkists held her down, and the bloody face of Aqua smiled as she cleaved off Onyx's tail. Onyx shrieked. "We need to go!" Vulture said. "BUT ONYX!" Swordfish and Rattlesnake said in unison. But Swordfish looked back down and saw all the hooded dragons and knew it would just make things worse. "JUST DON'T LOOK BACK!" Vulture said. The four dragonets took off into the sky, leaving the horrific scene behind. Swordfish looked back one last time and Adnachiel was gone. _Great._ Swordfish thought, exhausted.

They flew in silence, making a beeline for the mountain range, when they heard wingbeats behind them. "It's not over yet." Rattlesnake said. "Brace yourself." Swordfish turned around and saw… "Blizzard!" Vine said happily. Blizzard was flying up to the group of dragons, with a half-smile on her face. She was all scratched up, her blue-Icewing blood showing on her scales. She brushed wings with Swordfish and the others. "How did you survive?" Vulture asked, amazed. "I hid. When that flash went off I dove into an old bush outside a house." "Did you see Adnachiel?" Rattlesnake asked her. "No." She answered. "But I saw that." Blizzard pointed down and Swordfish looked to see Sloth, sitting on the ground against a tree. The dragonets descended down and landed a distance away from the scavenger. " _Quietly now._ " Vulture whispered. _"Don't let him know we're here."_ They all creeped up on the scavenger, ready to pounce, but they weren't prepared for what happened. Sloth picked up Savanna's necklace, and touched the stone. He began whispering something, and the necklace glowed. A rift opened.

Swordfish's eyes widened as Sloth stepped through the rift, leaving the necklace behind. "We have to follow him." Rattlesnake said. "Is that what a rift looks like?" Vulture asked Swordfish, and Swordfish nodded. "Well then, let's go!" Vine said, and she walked toward it. "Wait, shouldn't we consider where we're going? How are we going to get back?" Swordfish asked. "That's our one shot at the answers, slipping away." Vulture said. "If Rainfall knew about this stuff, we should be able to go find a way back." "That's thinking optimistically." Blizzard said. But she was cut off by more wingbeats behind her. "They're back." Rattlesnake moaned. "I'm going in." Vine said, and she went into the rift. Vulture followed her. Blizzard hesitated, and then followed the two dragonets in.

Swordfish was then left alone with Rattlesnake. She didn't look at him. "Wh…What did Savanna talk to you about?" Swordfish asked. Rattlesnake paused, and still didn't look at Swordfish. "He confessed his love to me." She said flatly, and then entered the rift, leaving Swordfish alone. Swordfish sighed and followed her. Into the unknown.

 **Extra-long chapter for you guys for the beginning of the second story arc of Alternate. The previous arc was the longest arc by far. Thank you so much for your support, and I would love to know any thoughts/criticism/theories you guys have in the reviews.**


	29. Chapter 25: Scavenger

Swordfish inhaled and immediately began coughing from inhaling dust. He heard Vine and Blizzard doing the same. "Where are we?" Asked Rattlesnake, a sense of awe in her voice. "I have no idea." Vulture replied, looking around with wonder. When Swordfish stopped coughing, he looked around too, and was amazed as well.

They were in the middle of a large street, and were surrounded by large buildings. The doors and windows looked too small for dragons. There were designs on the bricks and various materials that made up the buildings. The street was made of cobblestone, and there were various things that looked like wagons, except they had seats up top that were too small for dragons, and only had two wheels. They had wooden pieces that stretched out front, like something should be carrying the wagon. Vulture, went and opened the intricate wooden door of one of the wagons to see that inside, there were more cloth seats, once again, too small for dragons.

Swordfish turned around when he heard a noise. He looked to see the rift he and the others came through beginning to disappear and close, the sight of the Old Night Kingdom disappearing.

On the sides of the street, were metal poles that had bits of glass up top. They were evenly spaced apart on either side of the street. There were also trees every once in a while, almost like they were put there for decoration.

"Three moons…" Vine whispered, looking at the enormous city with wide eyes. Down the street, the street continued, and the buildings continued as well. It was a city like one back home, but it looked more advanced.

The only thing that made the sight of the city not as amazing as it could have been, was the fact that the entire city appeared to be destroyed. Roofs had collapsed. Enormous holes were in the street, tearing up the stone bricks that made them. Some of the wagons had been crushed, their wood splintering out the side. Some buildings had been leveled entirely, their beautiful architecture, destroyed.

The other thing that was very unsettling about the city was the fact that it was completely abandoned, except for a few scavenger skeletons at the dragonet's feet. Swordfish noticed that their bones were burned and blackened in areas. One of the skeletons was missing its head, like it had been ripped off completely. " _Three moons."_ Vulture whispered, and pointed to the other end of the street. There lay the head, half of it completely crushed.

Various other debris littered the street. Building pieces, cloth, wood, various metal items. Blizzard picked up what looked like a pot. Except it was perfect size for a dragon, not scavenger sized like everything else. "Where are we…?" Vine asked. Rattlesnake suddenly took to the sky. Swordfish followed her.

Swordfish was blown away by the sheer size of the city. It had steeples and towers pointing high into the afternoon sky. The streets kept going, like a massive spider web. The destruction continued throughout the city. Swordfish noted that the tops of some of the buildings had what looked like flat areas to land on. Swordfish turned and saw what looked like… "It's the mountain range!" Swordfish yelled, and pointed to the mountains in the distance. It was the exact same mountains, they just looked a little different. It was definitely the same mountains that lined the old Night Kingdom. Swordfish turned around and looked for the coastlines in the distance, but it wasn't there. The land continued. Swordfish kept in the sky, confused. Vulture suddenly flew up higher than Swordfish.

When he came back down, Vulture had a look of bewilderment on his face. The three dragonets landed back down with Vine and Blizzard. "It's the same... but different. It's like Pyrrhia, but it extends west. The desert is still over there, but it changes to a different forest where the coast should be. And… there are more cities. There are more places like this." Vulture said, a look of awe on his face. It was like this was a dream of his.

"Where are we?" Rattlesnake muttered. "It's like… everything was normal… until Cedar killed Ostrich. Ever since then, it's been insanity." "You want insanity?" Blizzard asked, and she pointed at a sign on one of the buildings. It was on a metal plaque above the fancy wooden doors, which had burned. "King Burkhardt Bank." Swordfish read aloud. It was in the language the dragons spoke. "Three moons…" Rattlesnake said under her breath. "Are we all thinking the same thing?" Vulture asked, and Blizzard looked at Vulture with wide eyes, like she was scared again.

"This city… is… _was_ meant for scavengers." Vulture said, and Vine turned around and looked back at the buildings surrounding the dragonets. "…Wow…" She whispered. "Then… why were there areas to land on the buildings? They were definitely big enough for dragons." Swordfish said. "And that pot I found!" Blizzard added on. "There's no way that could be used by a scavenger."

"That's what's bothering me!" Vulture cried. "It makes it make even less sense!" Vine suddenly began walking into King Burkhardt Bank. "Hey! Where are you going?" Rattlesnake asked. "To go see if he's right. We won't know unless we check!" Vine ran up to the bank entrance. Swordfish sighed and followed her. It was just like the time they were running away from Adnachiel. The others followed Swordfish.

When they reached the doors, Swordfish was able to see just what had happened. It looked like the four doors on either side had been burned and crushed to pieces. The dragonets were able to get through the scavenger sized entrances, but a full grown dragon would not be able to do it.

Inside was large enough for the dragonets to be in, but it was a nightmarish scene. There were large windows inside the building, but most of them were completely shattered. There were desks lined in rows on either side of the dragonets, making two rows on either side, but the scavengers who had sat in the chairs were now dead all over the place. Their corpses with enormous burns on their bodies, and wounds that looked like dragon claws. There were wooden pillars, holding up the roof, and there were sets of scavengers tied to them, their bodies just as mutilated as the others. The bodies reeked from decay and rotting. They had been dead for a while now.

These scavengers wore coverings much more advanced than the scavengers Swordfish knew. Some of them looked fancier than others, with strange, stick-like objects slung over their shoulders, and strange hats. Swordfish picked one of the hats up and saw a metallic emblem on the front of it, a star inside a circle. It probably would've looked nicer, had it not had a spatter of blood on the hat.

Vulture was looking at one of the desks, and he suddenly grabbed a strange, metal device from the top. Behind the desk there was another dead scavenger, his head completely ripped off. Vulture looked at the device, which had what looked like an array of small metal buttons on its front. There was a piece of small, scavenger-sized paper sticking out of it. Vulture squinted a bit and read it aloud.

"Hello General Baumgarten. This is an update from the King Burkhardt Bank in Lochberg. We have received the payment the military sent us for the resistance, and it has been secured in our vaults. Yet we fear that Black Star informants know it is here, and they want it for themselves. Lochberg has already been hit so hard by our enemies, Holzkirche is the last stable borough. Should Black Star strike here, in the center of Holzkirche, it could topple all that's left of Lochberg. Worse, if the Cam…" Vulture stopped, and put down the paper. "It ends there." He said grimly, and looked back at the headless scavenger.

"By all the sand under the sun." Rattlesnake whispered. "They are intelligent." "I found more papers!" Vine suddenly said, and held one up from another desk. "Uh… I can't read though." She said with what seemed like embarrassed. Blizzard grabbed it from her and looked at it. "Uh… I can't read this either. It's with the letters, but it's not words I know."

Swordfish then turned and looked back at the fancier scavengers. He looked at the emblems again. _Black Star._ He thought to himself. Swordfish picked up the stick that the fancy scavenger had at his side. It was mostly wooden, yet it had long metallic shafts on either end, and a sharp, pointy metal piece on the end, like a spear. One end of the apparent weapon was larger and cut differently from the wood. It had a strange metal piece attached to it. Swordfish fiddled with the mechanism and suddenly, an ear-piercing _BANG!_ came echoing out of it. One of the desks that Swordfish had the other end pointed at, suddenly had a large hole through the side of it.

Swordfish dropped the weapon, shocked. It was one of those weapons Sloth had used, but a little different. This was long and would be impractical for fighting a dragon. The weapon Sloth had was smaller and wrapped around his forearm, and did more damage to closer targets. Sloth's weapon seemed almost like it was meant for fighting a dragon.

There was silence as the dragonets stared at the weapon. "Incredible." Vulture said, shaking his head in amazement. "By the looks of it, these scavengers were so much further advanced than us." "What happened to them?" Rattlesnake asked. "That's just it!" Vulture said, frustrated. "I can't figure it out!" Blizzard and Vine remained looking through the desks and the papers in a language they didn't know. Swordfish kept looking at the weapon, thinking back to Sloth.

"Our race and theirs. They lived together." Swordfish suddenly said out loud. "Blizzard is right, that pot outside is too big for a scavenger. Those landing areas on top of the buildings really are for dragons. Dragons and scavengers lived in this society together." Swordfish thought back to the weapons Sloth had. The one that could kill. The one that could blind. The smoke bomb. The way he could easily climb up a dragon and avoid capture. "And… I think they fought each other sometimes."

Rattlesnake looked around at the room again. "Three moons… He must be right. Look at the burns on these scavengers. Look at how mangled some of them are, especially the fancy ones." Rattlesnake stared at the uniformed scavenger. "Like they were some sort of priority target."

"Why? What would drive dragons to do something like this?" Vine said, disgusted. She was looking at the headless banker. "They could have just killed them and be done with it. It's like they went out of their way to make sure the bodies were gross!" "That's how you send a message." Vulture said grimly. "Swordfish, you must be right. They must be at war. They were showing disrespect even after death. They were trying to create fear. If you make an example to others to what happens when they don't obey you, it can be pretty terrifying. Things like that are an excellent way for a queen to show what happens to those who don't follow commands. Make an example of your own subjects to show them that you have complete control over their lives."

Vulture stopped when he realized everyone was looking at him with concern. "Hey, I grew up under Scarlet! The arena was like a monument to this sort of thing!" Vulture paused. "It was even worse when some Skywings would make that grotesque event something of grand celebration. I know for a fact that Scorch's mother would entertain during those. There was even a rumor that went around that she 'entertained' for some of the full-grown males after those evil things." Swordfish frowned, remembering Scorch talk about her mother. " _What does that mean_?" Vine whispered to Swordfish. Swordfish shook his head at her. " _Uh… not now. Maybe later I can explain_."

The dragonets decided to leave the disgusting, rotting corpses behind and go further into the bank. The further they went, the more uncomfortable Swordfish felt. The hallways became narrower and harder for the dragons to navigate. But eventually, they came to an enormous hole in the wall that lead to the outside. Inside the room was black and charred. Outside the hole, the grass and dirt had been dug up, and a nearby tree looked burned. Swordfish was looking outside when he felt something crunch under his steps. He looked down with disgust to see he had easily crunched through the blackened ribs of a scavenger so burned, he looked like a skeleton with skin. He was naked, like either his little coverings were burned away or taken off.

"Hey, look at this!" Blizzard said, and she was pointing to another dead scavenger. But this one was different. He wasn't burned. He still had coverings on. He looked fancy, like some of the others back in the main room, but his coverings were different. He had a hat that covered both sides of his head, and his coverings had his entire body covered, like a coat. He had a shocked look on his face, and a hole right through his head between his eyes. "He was shot by one of those sticks." Swordfish deduced. "The hole is similar size." Swordfish remembered how Sloth shot the Rainwing. The holes were still different. Vulture turned around to face the burned room. "What do you suppose happened here?" Vulture asked, looking at the hole in the wall.

Suddenly, a strange clopping noise got the dragonets' attention. Swordfish looked out of the hole and saw one of those wagons going down the street outside with speed. But attached to its front were two brown horses, galloping, pulling the wagon. The doors were closed. On top of the wagon sat two scavengers, one with a whip. The wagon was towing a large, flat piece of wood with wheels on it. It had chains attached to its sides, and made a loud _CLANK CLANK CLANK!_ Swordfish watched with amazement as two more wagons followed them. The second of the three looked bigger and fancier than the others.

" _So there_ are _scavengers still living here!"_ Vulture whispered, excited. Swordfish just stared. Each wagon had two scavengers on top. One with the whip, and the other. On each wagon, the other scavenger was carrying one of the weapons Sloth used.

"We need to go." Swordfish said urgently. "I agree." Blizzard said quickly. "They… uh… look like bad news." Swordfish turned to face Rattlesnake and Vine, but Vine wasn't there. "WHERE'S VINE?!" Rattlesnake suddenly asked loudly. Swordfish turned to see Vine flying towards the wagons. "No!" Swordfish yelled.

"Hello!" Vine said to the scavengers. "We know you can speak our lang… AHH!" Vine shrieked as one of the scavengers stood up and fired the weapon at her. It should have hit, but it appeared that Vine was too far away to get hit by those ones. "DRAAAAAAGOOOON!" The lead scavenger with the whip yelled. "RAINWING! PREPARE CAPTURE!" yelled another voice. The scavengers with whips suddenly snapped at the horses. "Whoa! Whoa!" They commanded, and the horses pulled to a stop, lightly skidding on the cobblestone street. The weapon-holding scavengers on each wagon suddenly pulled something new out of their waists. They were similar to the weapons, but had what looked like metal hooks on the ends. The scavengers shot them at the roofs of the buildings around them, including the bank that Swordfish and the others were currently hiding in. What followed the hooks flying through the air was long, black wire. The hooks latched onto the roofs of the buildings. They formed a triangle around Vine.

"What do we do!?" Rattlesnake asked frantically. The dragonets turned to Vulture, who had so far proven to be the smartest here. _That's right._ Swordfish thought. _I notice things. He can figure out what happened._ "I… I have no idea! My father told me all the strategies and ways to use mechanisms to win a battle, but I have no idea how to combat an intelligent, advanced scavenger!" Vulture said with panic ripping through his voice.

The scavengers who fired the hooks at the buildings suddenly climbed up the sides of the buildings, using the wires as guides, and with incredible speed, until they were on the roofs. "I'm sorry! I don't mean any harm to you!" Vine cried. The scavengers paused, before one of the roof scavengers spoke. He had a small bit of greying hair under his mouth and wore a hat with a wide brim. "Would ya believe they're using young like this? Do they think we'll forgive them if they act innocent?" He asked, and a few of the others laughed. "Look, you ain't getting away from this, and if ya really meant no harm, where's your armband? How stupid do ya think we are?" The scavenger had an accent unfamiliar to Swordfish. Now mostly all of the scavengers laughed.

"W… what?" Vine asked, appalled. And then one of the scavengers on the roofs fired a strange contraption at Vine. Vine shrieked again and tried to turn invisible, but the pellet-thing that the scavenger had fired suddenly began to unfold and unravel, until it formed netting made out of wiring. It fell right on top of Vine, and Swordfish watched as it tangled Vine up and weighed her down. She fell down to the ground, her wings not letting her get up again. "Make sure she can't use her venom!" One of the scavengers cried. More of the scavengers from the wagons ran out and hastily put a scary-looking metal muzzle on her mouth.

The scavengers cheered, victorious. "How much do ya think she'll fetch us from Black Star?" One of them asked. "Oh, probably quite a bit. Rainwings are hard to catch and you know that they'd love to get their hands on one." Another said, this time a female. She had one of the sticks Swordfish recognized from the main room. "Yeah! Black Star'll pay good for this!" Said another scavenger. Suddenly, one of the wagons opened, and a scavenger in fancier coverings walked out. He was short and fat. He wore a long black coat. "We're not selling her to Black Star when the Old Monarchy will most definitely pay more." The scavengers fell silent. "B-but boss! Black Star would love to study a Rainwing, and the fact that she's a dragonet makes her weaker and less able to resist!" The female said. The fancier scavenger paused. "Are you forgetting who the boss is, Angela?" He asked. He had a new strange accent Swordfish couldn't place.

"Oh, that's right, it's me!" The boss said. "I arranged this gang after the Collapse, and have kept you outcasts safe, and if you don't listen to the boss…" The boss suddenly pulled another weapon out of his coat. He shot it at a tree with a loud _BANG_. The trunk of the tree splintered with the impact of the projectile. "It'll be _you_ on the wrong side of this gun."

 _Gun. Those things are called guns._ Swordfish thought to himself. _And there's different kinds._ "We need to get out of here." Blizzard suddenly whispered. "We need to save Vine." Rattlesnake whispered back to her. "We can't let her get sold to something called Old Monarchy, whatever that is." "We need to save her." Vulture agreed. "Now. We can't let them take her away." He pointed and Swordfish saw the scavengers loading the captured Vine onto one of the flat wood pieces being towed by the wagons.

"If we want to get her out of there now, we're going to need a distraction." Vulture said. "One of us needs to get their attention so the others can free Vine." "I can do that." Blizzard said quickly. "I bet I could hold off some scavengers long enough for that." Rattlesnake nodded at Blizzard. "Are you sure? They have guns. We don't." "Let's see, I have wings, teeth, claws, frostbreath, tail spikes, horns, and skill." Blizzard said with a small smirk. Swordfish remembered how easily Sloth was able to kill the Rainwing Darkist with the short-range gun. "Be careful. It seems they know how to kill dragons." Swordfish warned her. Blizzard nodded, and then she looked to the scavengers again, an odd look on her face.

Blizzard remained a mystery to Swordfish. Her unfitting facial expressions and reactions. Her secret fighting skill. Her possible animus power. Swordfish studied her out of the corner of his eye as she looked at the scavengers, most likely plotting her course of action. Her crystal-blue eyes glittering in the sun. He liked her much better when she wasn't pretending to be a snob. Sure, she lost some of her elegance with her true self, but out of all the dragons Swordfish had met, she seemed like one of the most real ones he knew, along with Rattlesnake and Darkseer. They seemed true to themselves.

Suddenly, Blizzard leaped out from the hiding place in the bank. She launched out of the hole in the wall and flew into the sky, her Icewing scales reflecting the sunlight and making her vibrantly bright. "THERE'S ANOTHA' ONE, BOSS!" One of the scavengers shouted. "ICEWING! KILL 'R CAPTURE?" The boss turned around to look at the scavenger who asked that. "CAPTURE IT YOU HALF-WIT! Is it SO hard to remember what we do? Capture dragons, sell them to other people who want them!" That word sent chills down Swordfish's spine. " _People."_ Where had he heard that before?

" _What do_ you _know about the King? Of all people, you should have the least knowledge about his plans._ " is what Cassriel had said to Abyss when the old world was collapsing. Swordfish logged that into his brain for thinking about later.

The scavengers suddenly took off in the direction of Blizzard, who flew up higher in the sky. More scavengers used the hooks and wires to ascend to the rooftops, climbing up the sides of buildings with ease, which made Swordfish worry that these scavengers were trained like Sloth was to kill a dragon.

The scavengers took off to chase after Blizzard, but not all of them did. Some stayed behind. Vulture had also prepared for this. "If some stay behind, like I suspect the boss will, try to suppress them, but if it comes to it, just kill them. They _are_ just scavengers, and we're dragons." Rattlesnake gave Vulture a disapproving look behind his back.

Swordfish took a deep breath, calming his nerves and trying to imagine the faint blood stain on his leg from Savanna's ankle wasn't there. _They're just scavengers. They're just scavengers… Or are they "people?"_ Swordfish took off and began flying toward the wagon with Vine on its back, Vulture and Rattlesnake right behind him. One of the scavengers suddenly climbed on top of the wagon, and spotted the three dragons flying toward him. He had skin darker than most scavengers here. "Kwame! Take the rifle!" Yelled a voice from inside the wagon, and one more scavenger jumped out of the wagon, holding one of the long guns. It was Angela. She handed it up to the one called Kwame. _Rifle._ Swordfish thought, seeing Kwame take hold of the long gun and point it up.

"SCATTER!" Rattlesnake yelled, and Swordfish and Vulture flew in different directions, splitting up so that Kwame couldn't shoot them as easily. Kwame still took aim with the rifle, following Rattlesnake. But he wasn't aiming for her body. He was aiming to the left of her torso. Her wing. "RATTLESNAKE! YOUR WINGS!" Swordfish yelled. Kwame suddenly jerked the rifle towards Swordfish and fired. Swordfish rolled in the sky to the right as the small black pellet whizzed past him. Vine began flailing around in her metallic net, making as much noise as she could.

Suddenly, Vulture flew straight into Kwame from the side, making the horses on the wagon neigh and kick violently. The dark-skinned scavenger went flying off the side of the wagon and skidded onto the street, making a cracking noise when he landed. He didn't move. "Kwame!" Cried Angela, but Swordfish paid no attention to her. He was looking to the roof above Vulture. There, was the scavenger who had spoken to Vine. "VULTURE! ABOVE YOU!" Swordfish called, but it was too late. The scavenger tipped his hat downward, and fired one of the strange contraptions again. The metal net extended over Vulture as it pinned him down to the ground next to Kwame. "Kiboten Dragon Snares! Works every time!" The scavenger with the hat crowed, victorious.

Suddenly, a loud bang sounded from the direction of Blizzard. Swordfish glanced in that direction to see that Blizzard was now holding one of the guns and had managed to fire it. It was small in her hands, but she held it carefully.

Swordfish glanced back down when he heard a familiar clicking noise. The boss was holding one of the disorienting weapons Sloth had. "FLASHBANG!" The boss said, and fired it. Swordfish turned away just in time, but Rattlesnake wasn't so lucky. Swordfish watched her body begin to fly blindly around, and she began stabbing the air around her with her venomous tail, a tactic Swordfish had seen the Sandwing in the arena fight that lightning dragon with. When the flash cleared up, Swordfish turned to face the battle again. Swordfish looked down to see Angela had grabbed Kwame's rifle and was pointing it at Rattlesnake. "YOUR WINGS!" Swordfish yelled, but it was too late. She fired the gun and Swordfish saw the projectile pierce through Rattlesnake's right wing membrane. Rattlesnake began to fall downward and the boss began to yell. "Now Ezra!"

The scavenger on the roof with the hat was fiddling with his Dragon Snare, affixing something onto it. "Hol' on. Gotta actually load it!" Ezra pointed the snare downward toward Rattlesnake, who was almost on the ground by now, still wildly stabbing with her tail. "No! Please we don't mean any harm to you!" She pleaded, now looking straight at the boss. "Yeah sure. No armband means you're not Old Monarchy dragons. It means you're a Camaelist, and we humans are your sworn enemies." _Humans._ Swordfish thought to himself. _They call themselves humans._

Ezra pointed the snare at Rattlesnake, and Swordfish acted without thinking. He flew right at Ezra and swiped at him with his claws. Ezra fell back and tumbled down to the ledge of the building. He fell off, but was able to hold on with one of his little scavenger paws. Then, using the other one, Ezra pulled himself back up onto the roof, a scratch on his face. "Damn Seawings." He growled. His arm went to his waist, where one of the short-range guns were. "You're the ones responsible for my family's death!" "EZRA, DON'T LET YOUR STUPID VENDETTA GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR JOB!" Angela called up to him. "Right." Ezra said. And then he fired the snare at Swordfish.

Swordfish didn't even know what hit him. His wings were suddenly completely tangled up in weighted wires that hindered his movement completely. He was only able to thrash around. Swordfish fell off the roof, unable to fly. He landed on the cobblestone with a crack and Swordfish's world went black, turning into a dreamless unconsciousness.

Swordfish awoke to the sounds of yelling. When he awoke, he was locked down to one of the flat pieces of wood that was being towed by the wagons. The wood made squeaky, clanking noises as it went over the dirt streets. He looked around to see he was locked down with Rattlesnake. Vulture and Vine were being towed by the wagon in front, and Blizzard had been captured as well. They were no longer in the city known as Lochberg. They were in a small country town. Green hills and dense forests could be seen in the distance, illuminated by the sunset. But the town streets were lined with scavengers. _No… people._ Swordfish thought to himself. The people were yelling at the dragonets. "Filthy Camaelists!" One yelled. "You kill man, woman, and child. Yet you feel no remorse because they're not dragons!" "I hope they kill you like you did my son!" Another yelled. Someone threw a stone at Vine on the wagon in front.

Swordfish tried to speak to Rattlesnake, but he had a muzzle on as well. "You're awake." Said a familiar voice to Swordfish. Swordfish looked up to see Kwame sitting next to the driver, with his left arm wrapped in a white cloth. "You'll be traded off to Old Monarchy tomorrow for being a Camaelist." Swordfish could only look up at Kwame. "Don't try to make conversation Kwame." Said the voice of Ezra from inside the wagon. "That's not a dragon, it's a monster." Kwame stopped, and turned back around.

Swordfish could only sit and listen to the humans yell at him and his friends. _What happened here? Where are we? What are all these terms? Camaelist? Old Monarchy? Black Star?_ Swordfish sat and tried to drown out the hate of the humans by focusing on some birds flying in V formation.

As they rode on, stopping occasionally so the horses could rest, Swordfish could only sit and try to figure it out. _So it's like Pyrrhia, but the west coast continues. Like Pyrrhia is bigger._ Swordfish watched trees as they rode through the woods. _Wherever we are, it seems that scavengers are the dominant life form, yet dragons do exist. And it's more technologically advanced than we are._ Swordfish suddenly got an idea, a crazy one, but it was an explanation.

 _That rift Savanna's necklace opened didn't lead to another world, it lead to the past. This is the world before The Scorching._

It didn't make sense, but Swordfish wouldn't be surprised if there was a whole list of things he didn't know could happen. Of course, this would also mean that the truth would have been actively covered up by other dragons, either now or in the past. Swordfish watched the night continue as the wagons pulled them through the forest. Swordfish remained awake and wondering and worrying until he fell into a restless sleep.

When Swordfish awoke again, it was daybreak. They were on the outskirts of another city. "Welcome to Hemsbury!" said the voice of the boss. "We're in Old Monarchy territory now!" As they went further and further into the city, more people came out on the streets to yell at the dragonets. But this time, to Swordfish's surprise, dragons came out as well. There were some of every tribe, but there were some from tribes Swordfish didn't even recognize. Strange purple and black dragons with sleek horns and thin snouts that almost looked like Nightwings. Light-green and yellow dragons with curved horns and long spines on their back that were similar to Rainwings. And there were large, bulky black and brown dragons with thick, curled horns and lacked back spikes at all, their wings looking less for speed and more for combat. Swordfish noted both Vulture and Blizzard looking at the new tribe dragons with worry, confusion and amazement.

Eventually, the wagons pulled up to a building within the city with people in uniforms stationed outside. The building was made out of bricks and had a small archway over the door, which read TO PROTECT, SERVE, AND FIGHT. _This must be an Old Monarchy military building._ Swordfish thought to himself. Swordfish recognized the uniforms as the same uniform the dead human in the bank with the gun wound was wearing. Swordfish watched the wooden doors open and a small group of people walked out to meet the boss, who had two of his gang members behind him.

"Mr. Raneri, have we not told you to take your business elsewhere?" Said one of the humans from the Old Monarchy. "Hear me out, I've got a whole FIVE Camaelist dragonets captured, and they're stupid." The boss, apparently named Mr. Raneri said. "I'll sell them to you right now for 5,000 parabs."

Swordfish watched the doorway as another human walked out, wrapped in a blanket. "I've got a Rainwing, a Skywing, a Seawing, a Sandwing, and an Icewing. All found without armbands." Raneri said. "So you value one Camaelist dragonet at 1,000 parabs?" Said the Old Monarchy human. "You're a greedy man Raneri." "Well then, General Baumgarten. These five are dragonets and capable of rehabilitation. And if you're not interested, I think we all know that Black Star would love to get their hands on a Rainwing…" Baumgarten suddenly got an intense look in his eyes. "We'll take them." He suddenly said with urgency. "5,000 parabs? Done."

Raneri began walking into the building with General Baumgarten as Ezra begun unhooking Swordfish from the wood. Swordfish didn't care. He had made eye contact with Sloth, who was now staring at him from under the archway, wrapped in a blanket.


	30. Chapter 26: History

**The "wagons" I refer to are actually horse-drawn carriages seen through a dragon's eyes.**

Swordfish awoke inside a cylindrical stone room. He sat up quickly, and felt the straw under him crunch slightly. The room was dark, except for sunlight shining through a small arched window just large enough for a dragon's talon to reach out of. Swordfish stood up completely and stretched his wings out. The room was large in area, large enough for a full grown dragon to stretch his wings completely. Swordfish turned around and was met with an arched doorway with cell bars. Outside the bars, the daylight shone.

Outside, Swordfish could count about 16 large towers, each with cell doors going up them. There were wooden bridges, obviously designed for humans, connecting the towers together. Each cell door had a wooden platform outside of it where the bridges connected. On the bridges, there were uniformed Old Monarchy soldiers armed with anti-dragon close-range guns and dragon snares. What caught Swordfish's attention even more was the fact that there were dragons perched on top of the towers and flying around. They had metal helmets that covered the entire backs of their necks. They had armor on their tails as well that protected the weak spot. They wore armbands on their left arm _"And if ya really meant no harm, where's your armband?"_ Swordfish recalled Ezra saying to Vine. But that wasn't what really caught Swordfish's attention.

On each dragon's right forearm, was a mechanism that looked like the guns that could kill a dragon, but they were different. They were obviously bigger so that they could fit on a dragon, but the gun part looked thinner and longer. Similar to a rifle.

The other thing that intrigued Swordfish was the fact that in each cell he could see, was a dragon. There were no human prisoners, even though there were human guards.

Swordfish tried to remember how he got here. He remembered seeing Sloth wrapped up in a blanket as Mister Raneri sold him and the others to General Baumgarten, and then being traded off into large wooden boxes, still all cuffed and wired up. The boxes were in a large row and connected, and on two metal rods that were possibly the longest thing Swordfish had ever seen. They stretched out further than Swordfish could see. He remembered hearing he was on something called a "train" from one of the Old Monarchy soldiers. He was then approached by a human wearing the Old Monarchy uniform, but lacked a hat. He was beginning to lose the fur on his head.

He pulled out what looked like a small glass tube with holes for his human paws, and a small metal sharp piece. "Sleeping time, Camaelist scum." He said, and stabbed Swordfish on it, and Swordfish fell asleep.

Swordfish looked down at his left arm and saw he had a metal armband on, similar to the ones the guards wore, but had a different symbol on it. The shape of a front view of dragons face in a red triangle with leaved branches surrounding it.

Swordfish walked over to the bars and saw a guard dragon flying his way, an Icewing, and Swordfish was amazed to see a scavenger riding her. Swordfish managed to close his gaping mouth and speak. "Hey! What's going on? Why am I here!?" The scavenger had short, blonde fur on top of his head and wore the Old Monarchy uniform, but without a hat. The Icewing turned and landed on the platform outside of Swordfish's cell. The human got off the Icewing's back and looked up at Swordfish.

"Well Polar, what'd I tell you? I knew the Icewing wouldn't get up first." The human said to the Icewing, who was named Polar. Polar scoffed. "Well Michael, you're not taking into account that this Seawing is awake earlier than he should be." "Yeah, that's true. The sleep serum should be working for a few more hours. The others are still asleep." Michael turned to Swordfish. "Are you an insomniac by any chance?"

Swordfish had no idea how to respond to the quizzical human. He just stared. "Wh-what is all of this?" He finally managed out. "How did this happen? How are you talking? WHERE AM I?" Michael looked confused and Polar just scoffed. "Don't play dumb with us, dragonet. Michael Bridger here is a little more trusting than I am. But I know you're a Camaelist. No armband, wandering around Holzkirche borough in Lochberg, right after Conwell returned from his expedition. The question is, how did you find out what he was doing and where he would be?" Polar narrowed her eyes at Swordfish. "I think there's an informant within our ranks."

"What are you talking about? What is a Camaelist and why does everyone think I am one? I've never heard that word in my life!" Swordfish argued. Michael looked at Swordfish. "Are you Swordfish?" He asked suspiciously. Swordfish looked Michael right in his brown eyes. "H-how do you know my name?" "My best friend Anthony Conwell was telling me about a dragonet he wanted to meet named Swordfish."

"I… am Swordfish." Swordfish said with anxiety. _Who is Anthony Conwell?_ Swordfish thought worriedly. "W-why does he want to meet me?" Polar turned to Michael as well. "Why would Conwell want to meet a random Camaelist dragonet?" "I'm not a Camaelist, whatever that is!" Swordfish argued, surprising himself with being able to speak without stuttering. "Sure. Whatever you say." Polar said flatly. "Polar, will you go get Anthony please? He's probably still with Commander Seilbrenner." Polar sighed. "I don't get why he was so interested in a bunch of enemy dragonets. The man went to the future and saw things nobody should, yet he's concerned about _this._ " Polar took to the sky, and flew downwards, down towards a small complex of buildings.

"Man?" Swordfish asked. Michael turned back to Swordfish, a strange look in his eye. "It's the human word to describe a male. Woman is for female. Or, at least it does in the Arnish language." Michael paused. "You really don't know anything, do you? Where were you raised?" Swordfish hesitated before saying "The Kingdom of the Sea. I thought that should be obvious." Now it was Michael's turn to look confused. "What do you mean? I don't know of any place called that."

Swordfish's head was reeling. "Do you know what The Scorching is?" He asked quickly. "No, but it sure sounds dangerous." Michael joked. " _Three moons…"_ Swordfish whispered to himself. "No, I'm pretty sure there hasn't been any more than one moon for a couple thousand years." Michael said. Swordfish didn't even know how to respond to that. He sat down on the straw and it crunched some more. He sat there, thinking for a while. "Ah, here comes Polar with Anthony." Michael suddenly said, and Swordfish sat up.

Polar was flying back up to the platform with a man on her back. Anthony had long brown hair and a brown satchel on his shoulder. He had a small bit of hair around his mouth and on his chin. He was wearing simple coverings. Swordfish looked through the bars to make eye contact with the human that he had met before. Time and time again. Anthony made eye contact back.

Sloth.

Polar landed on the wooden platform and it creaked with the force of the impact. Anthony Conwell slid off of her back, not breaking eye contact with Swordfish. There was silence. Swordfish and Anthony stared at each other. The wind picked up, and Polar raised her wings to provide shelter.

Finally, Anthony took his satchel off his shoulder and walked right up to the bars. "So… you followed me." He said. "Did you take the Necklace of Eclis with you when you walked through?" "YOU FOUND ANOTHER ONE?" Michael suddenly blurted out with a look of amazement on his face. "You… you mean Savanna's necklace?" Swordfish asked. Swordfish remembered Sloth dropping the necklace on the ground before entering the rift. "No. We… forgot to grab it. We were escaping from the Darkists." "You mean those creepy hooded dragons?" Anthony asked, brushing the hair out of his eyes, which the slight wind had begun to blow into his face. "Ah, good. That means it's still there. You can't have two of them at the same time, or one will be destroyed. Good thing you left it in 5,013." Michael and Polar turned to look at Sloth. "You mean… he's from… the future? He followed you here?" Michael asked. Polar whirled to look at Swordfish. "Are there humans? How are human-dragon relations?" "Uh… there are still humans… but they're nowhere near as advanced as this… they speak in another language, and they aren't considered intelligent and are eaten all the time. Dragons are the superior race of Pyrrhia."

"Pyrrhia?" Polar asked, and Anthony nodded. "Will you give Swordfish and I some time alone? I need to explain some things to him."

After Polar took Michael away, Anthony pulled something out of his satchel. It was small and square, and had squares of paper in it that Anthony flipped through. "This is called a book. It's similar to a scroll, but it has pages that you flip to, so you continue reading." Anthony flipped through the book until he got to a map. "This book is called an atlas, a collection of maps and information about them." Anthony flipped to a map of a place labeled "Jeoul."

"This world used to be normal until fourteen years ago. Actually, things were better than normal. The nations of the world were getting close to a form of world peace." Anthony began. "Until something happened. A strange new species suddenly appeared in the eastern country of Jeoul." Anthony turned the book so Swordfish could see. "They were scaled, fire breathing monsters. They had horns and talons. They grew faster than a human did, and had a tendency to be violent." Anthony looked up at Swordfish. "They were dragons, and there were ten different variations. Seawings, Aniwings, Rainwings, Mudwings, Rockwings, Nightwings, Sandwings, Grasswings, Skywings, Icewings." Swordfish recalled the three new tribes he had seen around.

"The people in Jeoul disappeared the night the dragons appeared. Nobody is quite sure what happened to them, but the most popular theory is that they were simply all killed by the feral, new dragons that arose, all of different ages. None of the original dragons that are still alive recall what happened before awakening in Jeoul, so it's assumed they just don't remember their first days alive. As news of this terrifying, supernatural threat spread throughout the world's countries, the island country neighboring Jeoul, Kibot, prepared for war." Anthony flipped to show an island labeled "Kibot."

"The Kibotens were very nationalistic, and immediately rose to try and stop the growing threat of dragons. They were the first to develop weapons capable of defeating dragons. Dragon snares, Single shot shotguns, and flashbang guns. They trained their military how to easily scale objects like buildings and trees, and where to shoot with the shotguns to kill a dragon. Right in front of the ear." Swordfish remembered how Sloth had shot the Rainwing Darkist in the spot on his head and easily killed him.

"But as the months went on, the dragons began easily becoming more human-like. They were already known to be intelligent, but they began speaking our languages, and showing more humanistic characteristics. We saw them as a threat still, but it became increasingly common to see dragons refusing to hurt us and humans refusing to hurt dragons. Eventually, it became known that each race saw each other as an equal threat." Anthony took a breath.

"Eventually, after a year of both fighting and understanding each other, a large collection of our nations met with the dragon leaders that had assumed power. We made a declaration of peace. War between the races would be met with punishment from both sides. Of course, there were dissenters on both sides, but a majority agreed it would be better to live together than to continue to fight and end both races. With our technology we had proven to be an equal match for the new dragons."

Swordfish couldn't believe anything he was hearing. _This was the history of the dragons, and it was unknown. Nobody knew. It had been forgotten._ Or as Swordfish was beginning to suspect, _it had been purposefully blotted out of history._ But by who? The royal families?

"There was an uneasy peace for about ten years. There were still humans who believed that these dragons were evil invaders. Most of those people were religious zealots and hate-filled. And there were dragons that were more primal than others, who believed they were superior and humans were nothing more than bugs that must be wiped out. They believed they were so much stronger than humans because they were meant to wipe us away." Swordfish looked down at his own claws. _Would I want to wipe out humans? Where would have I stood?_

Anthony sighed and then continued again. "For the most part, humans and dragons got along alright, and we resumed our mission for world peace. But then, about two years ago now, something new happened, and we were reminded again of the horrors of the war."

"An enormous dragon appeared, and when I say enormous, I mean that he was almost as tall as that mountain school you went to. He had fire in his scales. He destroys anything that even gets too close to him. He would walk through cities, burning them to the ground. His fire breath was unlike anything we had seen. He could breathe fireballs that would rain down and torch everyone and everything." Swordfish saw the fear in Anthony's eyes. "Not even the dragons know where he came from. He just rose from the ocean one day. His name is Camael."

Just the name itself seemed to create a sense of fear. Swordfish tried to imagine a giant dragon as tall as Jade Mountain. "Camael immediately began spreading messages of hate towards humanity. He was a dragon supremacist, and he was going to burn humanity away. All our cities, all our progress, all of our history, all of us. We are lucky that Camael rarely acts himself, or we would have been wiped out long ago."

Anthony took another breath. "The other dragon supremacists followed Camael. They believed he was a god, sent down to do the holy work of eradicating humans. They earned the name 'Camaelists.' The Camaelists were met with resistance at first, but their ideas spread as humans lashed out at dragons in fear. The idea that dragons were evil invaders took hold again, striking fear into people's hearts. One man in particular took hold. Axton Lloyd. He is a religious leader with a following of loyal people who believe he knows the words of the Three Moon Goddesses." Anthony's eyes got dark. "My own mother was one of them. Axton was dismissed in years past as slightly crazy, but he began rallying humans to join together to face down this evil. He and his cronies told people that we must band together to erase dragons forever. Put aside differences in race and sex."

Anthony paused and looked up at the sky. "He gained political friends, most notably Kuroi Hoshi, King of Kibot, and together, the Order of Black Star was created. A human supremacy group. All dragons must be killed, Camaelist or not." Swordfish was now definitely scared.

"The Black Star and Camaelists went to war against each other, Black Star using their authoritarian ways to create new technology to combat dragons. Each side began taking over countries, with Black Star creating horrific death camps where they would send dragons to be burned to death. And Camaelists would just destroy the entire country, attempting to catch and kill every human and leveling all cities and towns."

Anthony turned back to Swordfish. "But, one group remained that still believed that humans and dragons can live in this world together. It centered on the superpower country of Arnia. We call ourselves 'Old Monarchy' in lieu of the old leaders that believed in peace, some of which are still alive and working to restore the world. Our current head of command is the Arnish queen, Queen Hecate Finn." Anthony finished. "The dragons who side with us must wear an Old Monarchy armband to prove their innocence. This world-ravaging war has consumed us for two years now."

"So… those people who captured us thought we were Camaelists because we didn't have an armband and were wandering a destroyed city." Swordfish said. "Yes, and actually there was something else that added to it." Anthony said. "You were at the King Burkhardt Bank in Lochberg. There had recently been a little… disaster there." Swordfish remembered the dead humans and he now realized there had been Black Star soldiers there.

"Holzkirche borough was the last remaining part of Lochberg that hadn't fallen into anarchy and ruin. The Old Monarchy government sent them funding for their resistance group three days ago, but Black Star attacked and stole the money and took all the employees hostage and killed the soldiers there. The Camaelists then attacked and killed everyone there and attempted to burn the building down." Anthony said. "Those bounty hunters found you and thought you were Camaelists. They sold you to us, the Old Monarchy. You are currently in a prison built specifically for dragons."

Swordfish felt like his mind had been blown away. Everything he had just learned was unheard of. If this really was the past, and it must be because Polar said Sloth had "traveled to the future." If this is the past, then something bad is coming.

"Anthony." Swordfish suddenly said urgently. "There's something called the Scorching coming." "I already know." Anthony said grimly. "Rainfall told me all about it. The question is, what do we do to make sure it doesn't turn out that way?" Swordfish turned his attention to the satchel that Anthony had put on the wooden platform. _That's right! This is Sloth! He has Rainfall's code!_

"Anthony, what is the code to Rainfall's chest?" Swordfish asked urgently. Anthony stopped and looked up at Swordfish with a concerned look. "How do you know about that?" He asked quietly. "Who told you?" Swordfish attempted to try and begin a response before Anthony started speaking again. "I SAID WHO TOLD YOU?!" He yelled. "Rainfall did!" Swordfish cried. "Right before he died! He said he had told me he wanted to show me things he knew about the world!"

Anthony turned away and looked up into the clouds, saying nothing. Swordfish's mind felt like it had been scrambled past the point of no return. He had just been told so much, and yet there were still so many questions.

Finally Anthony turned around. "I can't tell you anything yet. The things I learned from him and when I went to the future are currently classified Old Monarchy information. I need to talk to you about things more urgent at the moment." Anthony put away his atlas. "Tomorrow they are going to bring you and your friends to a court so your fate can be decided. I have told others that you are not Camaelists, but I'm not a high enough rank to make decisions like this. But there are people and dragons in your corner. Like Commander Daniel Seilbrenner. He's a great man and is willing to try and prove your innocence."

The name of the commander sent chills down Swordfish's spine, but they disappeared as soon as they came. He sounded familiar to Swordfish, but he had no idea why. "What happens if they think we're guilty?" Anthony sighed. "They'll either kill you or keep you here for 'rehab' where they try to turn you away from Camaelism." Swordfish swallowed. "I would try to get some more rest." Anthony said. "You've still got a few hours before your friends wake up. The injection is supposed to put dragons to sleep for longer, but you were able to wake up." Anthony turned to leave. "Good luck in court." He said, and then picked up his satchel and walked away, taking one of the wooden bridges out.

Swordfish lay back down on the straw as the wind slightly began to pick up again, his head full of questions. _If this is the past… then what happened that resulted in Pyrrhia? The world seems so different. I need to see that atlas again. If those mountains outside Lochberg were really the same mountains that border the Lost Night Kingdom that would mean that the whole continent split apart!_

Swordfish suddenly had a striking realization. _If the continent split apart and Pyrrhia is just a piece of the puzzle… that would mean there are other continents out there._

 _And who's not to say that on these continents, the world is still the same as now? What if the Scorching was a Pyrrhia specific event?_

. . .

 _General Henrik Solberg stepped out of the church and sighed. It was early morning and the sun was beginning to rise over Sainswood. He was conflicted. He was going to decide the fate of five dragonets, who the government had deemed important, in a military tribunal. They were accused of being Camaelists and enemies of humanity and peace. What was so special about them was that they had come through the portal to the past with Anthony Conwell, a soldier who had gone with a strange Rainwing to the future. These dragonets were from the future, and were a danger all on their own. This was information only known by the higher-ups._

 _Solberg was going to decide their fate. He was going to hear from both sides. The Committee of Public Safety argued that the dragonets were dangerous and should be either euthanized or rehabilitated. The army branch of the military argued that the dragonets are not only innocent, they could be helpful to Old Monarchy. They knew of the outcomes 5,000 years in the future._

 _The minister stepped out of the church doors behind Solberg. "Thank you for coming to church in your time of need of guidance." "No, I should be the one thanking_ you _minister." Solberg said. "I feel that expressing this was a good idea. Yet the question remains. What do I do?" The minister put a hand on Solberg's shoulder. "You have good faith. A man with good faith, has good judgment. Put aside political complications and think. What do you believe is right?" Solberg looked back to the sunset and adjusted his glasses, thinking._

. . .

Swordfish stood outside the gates to the outdoor court. Along with him stood Rattlesnake, Vine, Vulture, and Blizzard. They were cuffed and wired again. A light mist sprinkled their scales with water. Carriages, as Swordfish had learned they were called, were going by, the horse hooves echoing through the quiet morning noise. Dragons flew overhead, and some walked along the streets.

There was a small crowd of humans and dragons who would be attending the trial waiting outside at another door. "Why are we doing this outside? Why can't we just go indoors?" A Rockwing asked, shivering. "Yes, because the Sainswood court room is _totally_ big enough for this many dragons." A woman said sarcastically, holding a stack of papers labeled _The Sainswood Weekly._ "Besides, do we really want to give those filthy Camaelists the pleasure of being dry? We audience members will be under cover." The Rockwing shrugged.

Swordfish turned and looked at Vulture, who was looking at the two having the conversation with wonder in his eyes. Swordfish had managed to tell his friends the basics of where they were before they got here. They had been ordered to keep quiet by a Skywing Old Monarchy soldier, who was now to their right with one of the Mobile Rifles attached to his forearm.

Swordfish watched as one of the windows on the building across the street opened up on the second floor, and three young humans peeked out of it, two boys and one girl. "Wow! Look at that!" One yelled, pointing to Swordfish and the others, being guarded by soldiers. "Do you think they're doin' a parade mother?" The girl asked. An older woman walked to the window holding a bowl with a wooden spoon sticking out of it. She gave the watching dragonets a nasty look and then closed the windows and pulled the curtains shut.  
A Nightwing walked by with an Aniwing, and they both took the time to spit at the dragonets' feet. Swordfish watched as Rattlesnake tried to say something, but one of the soldiers gave her a hard look. Swordfish kept watching the couple, which twined tails as they walked away.

The crowd waiting to be let in made a noise of relief when an entourage of carriages began clopping their way toward them, with dragons flying overhead. Swordfish recognized the Old Monarchy symbols on the carriages and the armor on the dragons overhead.

When the carriages came to a stop and the dragons landed, Swordfish noted one of the humans who walked out. He wore a large coat and had small pieces of glass over his eyes, as if to magnify his vision. "That's General Solberg." Said a voice, and Swordfish could have sworn it sounded familiar. The dragonets turned to see a man with blonde hair and a small scar over his lip. "He's the one who will decide your fate." Said the man. "And I'm the one who is going to try and save it."

Vine opened her mouth, but then received another stern look from one of the guards. "Oh, dismissed." Said Seilbrenner to the guards. The guards nodded and entered the outdoor court. "Are you Commander Seilbrenner?" Rattlesnake asked. "That's what they call me." Seilbrenner said with a chuckle. Two human soldiers were to either side of him. "Let me introduce these two." Seilbrenner said. "Swordfish, I think you've already met Michael Bridger." Swordfish nodded when he saw Anthony's friend's face. He looked up to see Polar perched on top of one of the buildings. Swordfish made eye contact with the Icewing, who glared at him. "And this is Marie LaToin." Seilbrenner said, and the other soldier nodded. "Hello everyone!" She said. She sounded optimistic.

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded. "Marie!" Yelled the voice of Anthony. Swordfish watched as the she turned and Anthony ran up to her. They embraced each other. "Oh thank god you returned safely." She said. "Where's Rainfall?"

Anthony sighed. "He died. He was murdered by…" Anthony shot Swordfish a look. "…something." Marie's face fell, and Blizzard made a strange noise similar to a cough. "I had to get back using the Necklace of Eclis I found there." Marie looked into Anthony's eyes, and took off her helmet, letting her curly black hair fall down.

Seilbrenner began leading the dragonets into the court, leaving the sad scene behind them. "Oh yeah, if you are proven innocent, you're going to have to tell us what we want to know about the future. That's the only way." Swordfish nodded. "I'll tell what I can." Rattlesnake and Vine nodded too. Blizzard didn't do anything, but Vulture got right up close to Swordfish. " _If we change the past, who's not to say that the future we came from won't cease to exist?"_

Suddenly, Blizzard spoke. "Commander, will we ever be able to get home?" The Commander turned around with a sad look in his eye.

"Probably not. The only way to do that would require the power of a goddess. But let's make sure you don't lose your head first." And the commander led them into the court.

 **Sorry about the delay. Also, next chapter may be much shorter than these past few.**


	31. Chapter 27: Change

Brittaney Colens sat in her chair with anxiety, and the tea that had been served was not helping. Her job was keeping the news outlets in order with Mr. Lloyd's wishes. Why was she attending a meeting with Mr. Lloyd himself, along with a variety of military leaders and strategists? Along the table sat many notable faces, such as Zane Jergens, head of the Black Star military, and Gordon Thessali, Black Star's top military strategist. Along with other military men and women, Brittaney felt like she didn't belong here.

Suddenly, the large wooden doors opened, and in walked two guards, their uniforms clean and their hands behind their backs, rifles on their shoulders. And then, in walked High Priest Abd Al-Malik, dressed in his church robes and behind him… Prophet Axton Lloyd. The man who will save humanity from the monsters. Dressed in his overcoat and hat, with the symbol shining gold in its center. The sign of humanity's hope.

All around the table, they put their right hands to their hearts in a fist and raised their left fists into the air in the traditional Black Star salute. "Hail the prophet, the man who knows the holy will!" Al-Malik said, and everyone replied. "HAIL!"

Lloyd flashed a small smile with his thin lips and wrinkled face. Brittaney squashed her treasonous thoughts of how creepy this holy man was. If she did not believe, what made her better than those ignorant Old Monarchy sinners, or those devils from Jeoul?

The prophet took a seat at the head of the table, and the High Priest took the other end seat. Brittaney noticed Al-Malik was holding a copy of the Holy Words, the book written by the first prophet, Hamza.

"It has come to our attention that as our great influence spreads throughout the world, we are being met with resistance other than the Camaelist sinners." Lloyd said with his voice that was a strange mix of comforting and terrifying. "Of course, you all already know about this. We now face a direct front with an area with heavy Old Monarchy influence. Arnia, Vestad, Otkhod, Dieautel, are all directly north of our Sudland-Emigo front."

"I would like to pass over the reins of the meeting to our military commander." Lloyd said. "Thank you, my prophet." Zane Jergens said. Jergens was a black man with short black hair, and stocky build. He also wore a military overcoat and hat. "I think we all know what getting this close to Arnia means. Arnia is one of, if not the most powerful country within the Old Monarchy. Of course, if we were to take down all of Arnia, Hecate Finn would be priority target number one." Brittaney stirred her tea, thinking about how the Arnish royal family used to be respected throughout the world, but in recent years had fallen into a rut of ignorant and treasonous thinking.

"But, of course, assassination of the queen would be an insane idea. The security of the royal guard is too great for what we have in terms of stealth." Jergens paused. "But, we have found someone who could one day become a great threat to our Northward expansion. Old Monarchy commander Daniel Seilbrenner. While he is not a general, he is most likely on route to becoming one. Seilbrenner's improvised orders are what drove back our troops in San Palagino."

Brittaney remembered hearing about how the Old Monarchy troops had waited in San Palagino, Sudland, for an incoming sandstorm blowing from the nearby country of Akhad. Both sides were aware that it was coming, and it was expected nobody would fight during it, but Seilbrenner had sent troops wearing special protective gear improvised out of a variety of combat uniforms from various military branches into the sandstorm. Black Star suffered a mass of ground troops coming at them straight on through the storm, armed with shields, while snipers in the mountains above shot wildly at their defenses. It was reckless, but sent Black Star as far back as Montoia, Sudland, and allowed Old Monarchy to hold on to the "handle" of Sudland.

"We cannot let that commander do something like that again, especially with more soldiers and resources at his fingertips. That's why we have this." Jergens finished, and turned to the door. A petite white woman walked through wearing casual clothes. She had intense grey eyes and black hair. "Meet Nikita Petrov." Jergens said. "The prophet and I have already agreed to let her help us." Nikita did the Black Star salute. "Nikita leads a group of trained assassin mercenaries from Otkhod, originating from before The Demon Appearance in Jeoul. They specialize in taking out military leaders and politicians. She and her mercenaries will take care of Seilbrenner for us. We have already paid." Nikita smiled and nodded. "This commander will not live to become a general." She assured in her thick accent.

"This meeting was merely an introduction to all of you military leaders." Lloyd said. "Except you, Colens." The prophet turned to Brittaney, who jumped a little bit when his blue eyes swept over to her. "It is your job to keep these assassins quiet. Do not let them be known to the public, in case anyone… begins organizing treasonous groups from within. It is also your job to cover up any instance of any outlet reporting their existence. Your officers do a good job of keeping the news correct." Brittaney nodded, her treasonous mind wondering if this was an unholy thing to do, keeping information quiet.

Brittaney couldn't wonder if Jergens was thinking the same thing, looking at the prophet with a hint of distaste. It was well known that the only two people who could overthrow Axton Lloyd with enough public support were Abd Al-Malik, who was known to be too loyal, and Zane Jergens.

"My prophet, may I speak?" Gordon Thessali, head strategist asked. "Yes, go ahead Thessali." Lloyd said, sipping his tea. "I propose we attack where Seilbrenner is currently located. Sainsbury. A near direct line from the abandoned Verlassenist town of Lochberg. Attacking Sainsbury will create chaos, in not only witch Petrov's assassins can kill Seilbrenner, but we can kill all of the Camaelists they have in the Sainsbury Dragon War Prison. Of course, attacking Arnia outright is a great risk, but Sainsbury is a remote city. We can go in, and go out. Especially if we use our new weapons."

Lloyd paused, as if in thought, and then smiled. "I never doubt your strategy Thessali. Let's show them the bite of humanity's power."

. . .

Swordfish made eye contact with General Henrik Solberg as he sat down. The man who would decide his fate. Swordfish was sat down with the others by Seilbrenner. Swordfish looked across the outdoor court to see a young woman with dark skin and long black hair. She was wearing a black and white uniform with the Old Monarchy symbol, but with " _Committee of Public Safety"_ written around the symbol. There was another woman behind her, and even a large Rockwing behind them, with an armband that also had the symbol.

"Let us begin." Solberg said in his deep voice. "First, we must do our traditional prayer." Solberg opened a drawer on his podium and pulled out a book and placed it on the wooden surface. "Luna, Sola, Eclis. Our three goddesses." Solberg began as the audience fell silent. "We ask you let only truth show in this court. Let your moonbeams guide us in the right direction, as you have for all of history. Although Sola and Eclis have left us, we believe you still look over us. And for that, we thank you." " _Thank you."_ Everyone repeated.

Swordfish had no idea what was going on, but Blizzard and Rattlesnake had peculiar look on their faces. Rattlesnake looked concerned, and Blizzard looked scared.

"Let's get right into the subject." Solberg said. "Our subject today is the fate of these five dragonets. Vine of the Rainwings, Blizzard of the Icewings, Vulture of the Skywings, Swordfish of the Seawings, and Rattlesnake of the Sandwings. They were found in the King Burkhardt Bank in Lochberg, Verlassen by Demetrio Raneri and his bounty hunters. They were captured as suspected Camaelists, and purchased by us so that Raneri would not be able to sell them to Black Star, who killed all of their Rainwings without ever studying how to combat venom."

"But since then, we have been told by Anthony Conwell, who has returned from his mission, that these dragonets are in fact, not Camaelists, and followed him into the past when he escaped using the Necklace of Eclis. They are from the future, and a bad one at that. Conwell has reported many disturbing things about this future, but only a few of those things matter right now. One, dragons are the dominant race of the world." There was gasps and growling from the audience. Swordfish looked at the faces around the court and saw anger, fear, and disbelief.

"Second, almost all prior technology is gone. They live in a society similar to the 15th century. This can only mean that the Camaelists succeed in their goal of wiping away our civilization. They live on a singular continent called Pyrrhia, and live separated by their tribes." Swordfish saw the Rockwing from the Committee of Public Safety glaring at him.

"Third, humans are eaten daily by dragons. They call them 'scavengers' and think of them like cows or sheep. The dragons are also very violent towards each other in general." Solberg took a sip of water from a glass. "That is all. First, we will hear from Asha Wirnman of the Committee of Public Safety." Solberg said, and the dark-skinned woman began talking.

"Thank you, general." She said with a strange accent. "Although our original idea was that these dragonets were simply Camaelists, it has come to our attention that they are dangerous on their own terms. They come from a violent, dangerous world, where it appears the Camaelists have won. They may not be 'Camaelists,' but Camael's ideas shape their world, and by extension, them. They come from a world where dragons eat humans like it's nothing. They may not be extremists who want control like the Camaelists, but they still pose a threat to humans, and the ideas of their world are even more divisive than the current Camaelists. Separation of dragons can only lead to fantastic racism throughout the dragons."

Suddenly Swordfish got a horrible idea. He saw how angry the Rockwing looked. _These three new tribes… what happened to them? What if… the entire tribes were wiped out by other tribes who thought they were better than them? And then it was covered up just like the rest of this was? Three entire genocides, covered up and taken out of history? By who?_ Swordfish answered his own question. _The royal families of course. They're the only ones who would be able to do any of this. But why would all the aristocracies agree to cover up truth like this? The past, other tribes._ Swordfish's mind thought to them all. _Coral, Ruby, Glacier, Moorhen, Battlewinner, Blaze._ Swordfish left out Glory, who wouldn't know anything, not being a member of a real royal lineage. _Three moons… what did the other Sandwing sisters know?_

 _And if the Camaelists, who are considered evil in this world, are accepting of all tribes like the Dragonets of Destiny are, what does that say about the rest of Pyrrhia? Even more extreme than Camael?_

"We say we execute these dragonets. They are past the point of rehabilitation. They have five-thousand years of history telling them otherwise. If we let them live, they will most likely join the Camaelists and tell them valuable information, and only increase the racism in the Camaelists to the point where even tribes start to hate each other." Asha said.

"I see." The general said. "Now, we'll hear from Commander Daniel Seilbrenner from the Arnish army." Seilbrenner rose from his seat. "Thank you, general." He said. "The army has only decided to take action involving these five dragonets because of what Anthony Conwell told us. When he was on his expedition to the future with Rainfall, Rainfall befriended these dragonets. They went to the same school. We believe we can trust these dragonets. We also believe they will be able to help us with their knowledge of the future, so that we can avoid our destruction."

Swordfish looked over at Vulture, and they made eye contact. _Seilbrenner really does want to change the future. If we ever return home… we could have changed things now, and… the whole world might be different. This technology… but five thousand years of progress added._ Swordfish tried to imagine returning home to a world with humans, and technology of the deep future.

 _Three moons… what are we doing?_

"How would you make sure they are compliant with this?" Asha asked. "How are you so confident that they will help you just because they were friends with another dragon? Are you forgetting that Rainfall is an enigma on his own? He has a shady past, refuses to help us look for the Necklace of Eclis or any of the other Holy Treasures, and to top it all off, he denies his Rainwing body its necessary sun time!"

Swordfish looked over at Vine to see her eyes looked concerned. Swordfish knew sun time was important for Rainwings to do on a daily basis… but did Rainfall never do it? Swordfish looked at Vine and went back in his mind to Rainfall's image. Rainfall was slightly duller than she was.

"Well, that all depends on them." Seilbrenner said, snapping Swordfish back to where he was. "They've already agreed to help us." "How do you know you can trust them?" Asha argued back. "What makes you think you can trust the word of a dragon like _them?_ " Swordfish felt the same anger off of Asha that Ezra had. She hated the Camaelists. She had had someone she loved killed by dragons.

"We don't." Seilbrenner said, and the other woman behind Asha smirked. "But it's a gamble that we're willing to take. General Solberg, you are the same general who ended up trusting Rainfall of the Rainwings in the first place. Would you trust accomplices of him as well?" "But we still don't know if trusting Rainfall was a good choice in the first place!" Asha said.

"Oh, yes it was." Said a voice from the audience. Swordfish turned his head to see Marie LaToin, and behind her was Anthony and Michael. "Rainfall was a good friend to me in the short time I knew him. All three of us. It was some of his kind words that helped me get out of my depression." Suddenly, Michael spoke up. "He saved me from a Black Star soldier who was threatening my life!" And then, Anthony. "Rainfall kept me safe all the while I was in that strange future, and one of the few dragons he was open about even having me was with the Skywing and the Seawing. Vulture and Swordfish."

"Anthony!" Solberg said. "You should be able to help us decide if you can just get Rainfall in here if he hasn't already left." Anthony looked Solberg straight in the face. "Rainfall is dead. He was murdered by what we believe was a bounty hunter." Again, Anthony shot a quick look at Swordfish. Swordfish noted the strange looks on the other dragonets' faces. Looks of fear and worry. Swordfish began studying the crowd of humans and dragons, suddenly worried that Adnachiel had tracked them here.

"So, if you can't have Rainfall prove that they're not enemies…" Asha began. "We still don't know if we can trust them." "In fact, who's not to say that this was their plan!?" The Rockwing suddenly said. "Who's to say they're not just going to attack the general right now!?" Suddenly, Swordfish saw an Old Monarchy soldier hand something wrapped in blankets to Seilbrenner.

"Does anyone know what this is!?" Seilbrenner cried over the ruckus. He held it up, to see that it was a baby human. "Of course you do! This is a baby! To be specific, one from the orphanage. She has no mother or father to call her own. But one day, she will grow to be one of us. A human, fighting for the Old Monarchy!" Seilbrenner held out the baby, who was beginning to cry.

Suddenly, Seilbrenner smiled at the dragonets, and then yelled "WHOOPS!" And lightly tossed the baby.

Swordfish was shocked for a split second, before Rattlesnake knocked him over so she could catch the baby. Vine leapt forward too, also attempting to catch the young girl before she hit the stone floor. The baby landed in Rattlesnake's outstretched talons, who was careful not to let her claws hurt the baby in any way. Rattlesnake turned to look up at Seilbrenner with anger in her eyes.

"Look how angry she is over that!" Seilbrenner cried. The court stared with amazement that the commander had done such a thing. "What was the meaning of that?!" General Solberg cried. "You could have killed her!" "Ah, yes. I could have. But this young girl is not dead. Why? Because these dragonets made an effort to save her. A Camaelist would have just let it hit the ground, not to mention an extreme Camaelist. I believe that Anthony also listed that not all dragons think of humans like cattle, correct?" Seilbrenner then turned to Asha and the others with her. "You just witnessed these dragonets save a baby, and you think they are enemies of all of humanity?"

There was a silence in the court, only the noises of horses clopping and dragons flying outside made a sound. Until Solberg spoke again. "I am trusting my own judgement." He said, and looked up at the sky. "Dragonets, do as you are asked. And Seilbrenner, please speak to us afterwards." And General Henrik Solberg made his decision.

. . .

Swordfish squinted as he looked at the sunset over the city of Sainsbury. "This is just temporary." Polar said, showing the dragonets the small area with a tarp over it. "We don't have a good place for you five yet and we have all these little areas for refugees. The Verlassenist border is very close to Sainsbury." Vine looked at the tarp. "No place for the sun to come in?" "Hey Rainwing this is war. We're all making sacrifices here. You think this is a good place for an Icewing? But here I am!" Polar said. Blizzard nodded in agreement with Polar.

Swordfish sat down in one of the corners and felt the grass and dirt under him. It had been so long since he had been in water. He missed the small pool that was in Jade Mountain. Swordfish thought back to Jade Mountain, and how he may never see it again.

Swordfish closed his eyes and thought about all of Pyrrhia. How he may never return there. How it may change and never be the same, all thanks to the actions of him and the other four.

But he knew what must be done, must be done. Swordfish opened his eyes and looked into the sky again. He had to keep pushing forward like Abyss said. Whatever this world brought him. Wherever he was. He had to keep going.

Into the future.


	32. Chapter 28: Beginnings

-It was early morning in Sainsbury, and Swordfish was awake.

It had been two days since the day of the court where General Henrik Solberg declared Swordfish and his friends innocent. Since then, they had been living with the other dragon refugees on Lothian Street in Sainsbury.

Swordfish was amazed at this world of the past. Swordfish had met dragons from the Aniwing, Rockwing, and Grasswing tribes. Each tribe also had abilities like the other tribes had.

The Rockwings were a large and bulky tribe. They came in dark browns and grey colors. They were somewhat similar to Mudwings, but lacked strength in flying and swimming. The Rockwing Swordfish had met, Gravel, had explained to him that Rockwings thrived on land better than any other tribe, but were not good on sky and sea. They had thick scales and were normally large. They fought with their bulk, and they could even break through weaker rocks.

Grasswings, on the other talon, were very different. Grasswings almost looked like Rainwings, but could not change scales and were a pale green, pale yellow, or pale brown color. They also could not shoot venom. The Grasswings were very fast on land, and could easily scale trees like a Rainwing. They could also exhale poisonous gas instead of fire, but it took time until they could use it again.

Swordfish found the Aniwings to be the most curious tribe. Apart from their strange name, their ability was also the strangest. Aniwings looked like Nightwings, but also had a hint of Icewings to their shape. They were commonly a dark purple or black, but there were some that had grey scales, like a mixture of black and white.

The Aniwing ability enabled them to have "super-sense." Their name for it was Animyre. The Aniwing would be able to see things in slow motion for a few seconds. They would have a limited time where time moved slower for them. It was because of this that so many Aniwings had taken control in the Camaelist armies.

The other thing that surprised Swordfish was all the different languages spoken among the refugees. He had learned that the language Pyrrhia spoke was Arnish, the language spoken in Arnia, but here were dragons speaking Verlassenist from the country of Verlassen, Otkhodans from the country of Otkhod, Dieautish from the country of Dieautel, and more. Languages from nearby countries that had dragons and people run away. This had Swordfish wonder if the aristocracies had killed any non-Arnish speaker in Pyrrhia.

Swordfish had begun to wonder about what the royal families of Pyrrhia had done in the past that made Pyrrhia so drastically different from the world of 1868, the current year Swordfish was in. Obviously, he came from a world where the Camaelists win this war, and push humans to near extinction and destroy their cities and technology, but why was all the history erased as well, along with three other tribes and non-Arnish languages and cultures? Swordfish and his friends had a theory that they were hiding something. Actually, it went deeper than that.

It was mostly Swordfish, Vulture, and Rattlesnake who thought it up. Blizzard was very quiet the whole time and Vine didn't know much about Pyrrhia. The theory was that the royal families, excluding Glory, were aware of the demons, to the point where they were actually working together. Something obviously happened in the time before The Scorching, and both the demons and the aristocracies didn't want the dragons of Pyrrhia to know, so they covered it up somehow.

Yet, Rainfall managed to travel back in time using The Necklace of Eclis, whatever that was. When he returned to the present, he somehow found his way into Cassriel's fake world, and that's why Adnachiel killed him. That's what Rainfall knew. That's what was in the chest. He knew whatever happened more than five thousand years ago that they didn't want him to know.

They even went as far as to consider that the creepy Darkist grandmaster knew something about this as well, and that's why he wanted to end the reigns of the queens. The promise of Darkstalker was just a mask for his real goal.

What Swordfish still couldn't figure out, was why three entire tribes needed to be wiped out for this. His best guess was that back in the years right after The Scorching, their queens didn't follow the others.

Swordfish explained everything he could to the rest of his friends. From the meeting with Glory, to his encounter with his family, and going further into detail about the Darkists. Swordfish purposefully left things out of his story, like about how he has to marry Typhoon, his father giving him the earring, which Swordfish had safely hidden away in his satchel, and certain things Savanna had said. Swordfish mostly left out the last one for Rattlesnake's sake, who was already saddened enough by the story of her old friend's betrayal.

Rattlesnake still didn't really talk to Swordfish, which made Swordfish really sad, but he had way too much on his mind to really care about romance. He missed her though. She was his friend.

Swordfish felt odd, withholding so much information, but he remembered what Abyss' note had said when he and Vine arrived in the weird grass-eating world. " _Only trust those you are absolutely sure you can."_ And with how strange Blizzard had been acting, Swordfish was unsure.

On a completely other note, Swordfish and the others had complied with the Old Monarchy's requests. They told Commander Seilbrenner everything Old Monarchy wanted to know. About dragon culture, combat, weakness, politics, everything. When they were done, Vulture noted that they still existed, so they may not have done enough to save these humans from destruction.

The last thing Swordfish had done was warn his friends about the new Skywing teacher, Falcon. "If we ever get back home, you mean." Blizzard said. "Yeah." Swordfish said sadly. "I don't even know if he's a Darkist or not, but we don't know anything about him. He could be a Darkist, or worse." Swordfish said as he recalled how Abyss had been able to transform into a dragon and back, with glowing light and high-pitched noise. If he could do that, who's to say other demons couldn't?

Swordfish sat up in the early morning as his friends slept around him underneath the tarp. Swordfish took Rainfall's drawing scroll out of the satchel and browsed through the drawings again. The happy Rainwing dragonets, smiling. One of them was definitely a young Rainfall. Swordfish wondered who had drawn the picture, as it looked different from the others, and whoever drew had to be able to look at Rainfall while drawing it.

Swordfish scrolled past the map of Possibility and stopped on the picture of the Icewing dragonet, smiling. She looked about five. Her eyes had a kindness to them that reminded Swordfish of Blizzard, but their faces were different. _Maybe Blizzard and this dragonet are related._ Swordfish thought, holding the drawing up to Blizzard's face while she slept.

Swordfish continued the scroll even though it was blank after that point. He scratched at the paper lightly with his claw, making a light noise in the early morning silence. He thought about how much easier books probably were, until he reached a new drawing he had never seen before.

It was a skyline. One from this world. The past. Pyrrhia didn't have smokestacks and buildings like this did. It even had a caption written beneath it. " _Hollaway, Arnia. 1867_."

Swordfish kept going, the pictures making his moth gape. The first one was drawn poorly, and the lines were shaky, like the artist had been scared. It was a crude drawing of humans bowing down in a circle towards a woman in strange white coverings, like a gown, wearing a crown. There was poorly drawn fire in the background. There were strange, talon-like hands coming down from the sky, doing what looked like casting a light over the woman. What was scariest about the drawing was the badly drawn dragons, bearing down on the people bowing. Their eyes were soulless. The caption simply said " _Hecate."_

The next picture was equally scary, just in a different way. The drawing featured three objects. First was a dagger with strange, runic symbols carved into its handle. The blade had a hollow part down the middle. It was labeled beneath as " _The Dagger of Luna._ " The second object was Savanna's necklace. Same exact pendant on the chain. It was labeled " _The Necklace of Eclis."_

The last object was what made Swordfish nearly yell out loud with surprise. Swordfish clutched the scroll tightly and looked around him, to make sure nobody was watching, and then reached into his satchel once more to retrieve the earring his father gave him. The one his father had the night Swordfish's mother disappeared.

Swordfish looked at " _The Earring of Sola._ " Same design. Two golden dragons twisting around each other. But there were strange runes on The Earring of Sola that weren't on Urchin's earring.

Suddenly, Swordfish got a strange idea. He got up, and carefully stepped over Vine, as not to wake her. He got as close as he could to Rattlesnake's head and compared her earring with the one on the scroll.

Perfect match.

Swordfish sat back down, his mind racing with possibilities. He tried to remember the prayer General Solberg had said before the trial. _Luna, Eclis, Sola._ They were hailed in a human religion.

Swordfish continued the scroll until he reached the next image. Three humans, which Swordfish immediately recognized as Marie LaToin, Michael Bridger, and Anthony Conwell. Of course, Anthony looked cleaner, had shorter hair, and no moustache, as Swordfish had learned it was called.

"What are you looking at?" Whispered a familiar voice. Swordfish looked up to see Anthony, looking more like he did in the picture Rainfall drew. "Uhhhhhh… nothing. What are you doing?" Swordfish whispered, quickly hiding Rainfall's scroll. "That was Marie." Anthony whispered. "I can recognize her anywhere. How'd you get Rainfall's scroll for sketches?"

Swordfish sighed and showed Anthony the scroll. "I took it from his room when we investigated it after his death." Swordfish said guiltily. "It seemed too important to just leave there where hooded dragons and scavenger monsters could get it." Anthony nodded. "Fair enough." He gestured to the street. "Care for a walk. I think I owe you another explanation."

Swordfish began walking with Anthony down Lothian Street, the city of Sainsbury slowly coming to life around them. "So… why are you up so early?" Swordfish asked Anthony. "Anxious." Anthony replied. "I'm finally going to confess my love to Marie." Swordfish turned to look at Anthony. "Really?" He asked. "Yeah. My expedition made me realize I very well may die soon. I think she ought to know how I feel before I bite the dust."

Swordfish thought about himself and Rattlesnake. _It's true. I may die before I ever get to tell her._

"Anyway, we're not here for that." Anthony said, and he stopped walking. They were in front of a church. The sun was beginning to rise behind it, giving its steeple a glow.

"The leading religion in Arnia and most of the world follows the story of Hamza and the three moon goddesses." Anthony said, and Swordfish turned to look at him. "Three moons. Like as in the three moons over Pyrrhia?" Anthony nodded. "Exactly."

"The stories go that Hamza was a man living almost 2000 years ago in the Central Desert, an area east of here. This was a time when there were three moons. Hamza somehow got in touch with three entities of great power that showed themselves as the moons. Luna, Sola, and Eclis. Hamza devoted his life to serving these goddesses and spreading word of them, and in return, gained powers from each one."

"Luna gave Hamza the power to manipulate the building blocks of life. Sola gave him the power to heal any wound easily. And Eclis gave him the power to open gateways into the past and future."

"Hamza could have easily taken over the world with these powers, but the moon goddesses made a good choice. He stayed true to a vow of peace. He helped those who needed to be helped. He gained quite the following."

"But human nature was too cruel to let him live on for much longer. Various men and women of power sought Hamza's power for themselves, especially Emperor Ghan of the Valkskyan Empire. Ghan believed that if he killed Hamza, he would gain his power. Hamza, fearing this was true, contacted the moon goddesses again, and together, Hamza's powers were put into objects of his. The Relics of Hamza. Luna's into his dagger, Eclis' into his necklace, and Sola's into his earring. This way, no one person could easily obtain all three powers. Hamza was captured by Valskyans not long after and was executed. Eclis and Sola were disgusted with humanity's actions and left. Only Luna remained, who still had hope that one day we would come around. The very religious believe that if one person collects all three objects once more and contacts the moon goddesses again, the other two moons will return, and that person will gain a power far greater than we could imagine."

Swordfish stared at the church. "So… our moons… are alive?" "No." Anthony answered. "A moon is more of a sign that the goddess is present in your world. Maybe they're living through a person, or a dragon, or some other animal. Maybe they're just watching."

"Are there more than one of each object?" Swordfish asked. "No, there's only one of each, although people can make replicas. People make earrings like that all the time, it's a common symbol in Arnia." Anthony said. "My father gave me one of those replicas, and Rattlesnake has an earring that's really, really good. It even has the runes on it." Swordfish said. "I wouldn't be surprised." Anthony said. "Many groups have used that symbol throughout the years. Most notably religious groups and secret societies."

Swordfish thought to things Rattlesnake had told him about her past. _Did the Outclaws ever use those earrings?_

"The other thing about those objects is that there can't be two or more at the same time. Hamza really tried to think of everything to prevent the power from being misused. Say if you use the necklace to go back in time, grab the earring from the past, and then go back to the present, one of the earrings will destroy itself. That's why I left the necklace back in that abandoned city." Anthony said, and Swordfish remembered Anthony purposefully dropping the necklace before entering the portal.

"And that's going to lead me into the other thing I think I need to tell you. About Rainfall." Anthony said, and Swordfish turned to look at him. "Let's go somewhere more… private." Anthony said, and he led Swordfish down an alley next to the church.

. . .

"I met Rainfall last year when Marie brought him into the town of Hollaway. She and her platoon had found him collapsed on the ground outside a small rural town in Dieautel. He was weak and sick. He carried a satchel much like you do. He claimed he didn't know where he came from. He said he only knew his name was Rainfall." Swordfish looked at Anthony intensely, thinking about Vine, Frigid, Mahogany, even himself in the fake world. "We concluded that he simply hit the ground too hard and hit his head. He wasn't wearing an armband, or identification of any kind. We thought he was a Camaelist. We tried to do 'rehab' on him, but he didn't seem to have a hatred towards humans of any kind. He understood the war perfectly."

"Marie became good friends with him as he recovered, and when he was healed, she really introduced him to Michael and I. He quickly became one of our best friends. One day, when Michael discovered a Black Star soldier had been spying on us, Rainfall saved him from the Black Star soldier, who was going to shoot him. Rainfall helped Marie when she was depressed. He seemed to know about sadness, and how to cope. He would often draw in that scroll you had."

"One day, he told us the truth. He had been scared before that we were 'something else.' He had lied about not knowing anything. He said that he came from the future." Swordfish began remembering things Rainfall had told him about his past. That day when Typhoon tried to eat Sloth. "Yes. I suspect the things he told you about his mother being captured by the Nightwings was not true." Anthony said, almost like he was reading Swordfish's mind.

"In fact, I hardly know anything about his past. He said he lived in a Rainforest, but left one day. He said the Rainforest was not the place for him. He talked a bit about friends of his. He mentioned an Icewing named Frost and Skywing named Swiftwind. Wherever he came from, it was multi-tribal." Swordfish remembered the drawing in the scroll. _Frost. Is that her name?_

"One day he told us something that blew our minds. He said that he had gotten here from the future by using the Necklace of Eclis, and that the portal was still open, and in a hidden location. Michael told General Henrik Solberg, and news of this spread throughout the military." Anthony said, and he paused for a second, looking at the sky, which was beginning to become daylight.

"One day, Rainfall said he had to go. He said he wasn't safe here anymore. Old Monarchy asked if he could take someone with him into the future, so we could maybe get an upper hand in the war. He said he would, and he would return them safely. I volunteered. I was curious about this world he spoke of. The world of Pyrrhia. He made me change clothes so I would look more like a 'scavenger,' and told me not to talk to anyone. No dragons, no scavengers."

"That's when things started to get weird. He started opening these things he called rifts. They led to different worlds. He didn't need any sort of enchanted object or Relics of Hamza to do it. He could just do it at will. He explained to me that he was being hunted by somebody called Adnachiel. He never told me how he opened the rifts, or why he was being hunted."

"Eventually, a dragon in one of the worlds named Clearsight told him to go to a certain world." "Clearsight? As in the Nightwing dragonet prophet from Darkstalker's time?" Swordfish asked. "No, this was a full grown dragon. She was married to this weird dragon from a tribe I didn't know named Sunstreak." Anthony said. "Does the continent of Pantala ring a bell to you?" Swordfish shook his head.

"We arrived in this world Clearsight told Rainfall about, and Rainfall enrolled in Jade Mountain Academy, according to Clearsight's advice. Rainfall began writing in a scroll each night we were in this new world. He never let me read it, but he gave me the code for the chest he kept it in."

"He told me to keep the code, but never to open the chest. He told me to look for somebody Clearsight foretold of. Somebody who could 'see through the lies.' Swordfish, if you can prove that you are the right dragon for the code, I will give it to you."

Anthony sighed. "The night he died, Rainfall whispered something to me. Frigid had already left, and Rainfall was about to. They were going to find Stonemover." Swordfish remembered being woken up from his dream that he couldn't remember to find Stonemover. That night… It felt like so long ago. Back before things were as bad as they were now. But in reality, Swordfish's memories of those days… were fake. These memories belonged to the Swordfish who was buried beneath the tree outside Jade Mountain.

"He whispered to me ' _Anthony, I have a meeting with fate coming. Things I've done are coming back to haunt me. If I don't return, I want you to know that this world isn't safe. And if things aren't done soon, none of them will be. Go and tell that to Old Monarchy. There's a greater threat than Black Star and Camael. The hero of the story needs to be found, so they can fix it, because in comparison to all the others, this story is very broken."_ And then he left. He never came back. I ran away, and eventually made my way to that abandoned city. I'm very lucky that Sandwing was wearing the Necklace of Eclis, or I would have never made it back."

Swordfish's mind was reeling. First, the story of Hamza, now the story of his classmate, which was deeper than he could've imagined. Rainfall had come from another world. Rainfall wasn't of the world Swordfish knew. Rainfall could world jump. And to top it all off, there were three sentient, all-powerful beings on Pyrrhia, along with three objects, which could lead to power beyond imagination.

 _Unless Pyrrhia isn't the only continent._

Anthony suddenly looked up. "Oh no! I have to go talk to Marie!" He exclaimed, and then ran off, leaving Swordfish with his mind reeling in the alleyway next to the church. Swordfish began wandering back to the tarp his friends were still sleeping under. He collapsed down to the ground and fell into a restless sleep, his mind filled with nightmares.

. . .

" _What do you mean you don't know what happened to them?"_ The King asked slowly. Cassriel didn't meet the King's gaze. "They were in the Lost City of Night one second, and then they weren't. The animus is still at the school, but the rest of the winglet disappeared." " _All of them? Even Blizzard followed the rest?"_ The King asked. "It appears so…" Cassriel said cautiously.

Suddenly, he was pressed down to the glass floor of the void, but even that began to fade away. Cassriel felt the immeasurable pressure bearing down on him from all around. He began to almost crumple beneath the power of the King.

" _ **I could kill you with a thought, Cassriel. Your transgressions are costly. You've managed to lose track of Vine and Swordfish once again. If they find out the full truth it could add on to our current problem, and make it even worse.**_ " The King's very thoughts echoed through Cassriel's existence. "Adnachiel… is keeping… watch of them… She always… is." Cassriel managed out. _**"Do you know where they are?**_ " The King asked. "No… but I… have a guess…" Cassriel said, his memories flickering to a time long-forgotten. A time of war. When man fought dragon and dragon fought man.

"1868. Pre-scorching."


	33. Chapter 29: Cry

"Ready?"

"Go!"

Swordfish felt Michael's hands dig into his back as he took off and they went to the roofs of Sainsbury. The buildings, smokestacks, church steeples, and clotheslines surrounding them. Swordfish saw Blizzard lift into the sky nearby with Marie on her back. Then they took off to the left. "Come on! Go!" Michael said, snapping Swordfish back to real life. He had been staring at Sainsbury from up above as the other dragons flying in the sky did every day. It was just so breathtaking, like Lochberg had been. This creation of the past. And to think, that there were cities bigger than this! There were ones that were totally different!

But Swordfish focused and began to fly through the chimneys and buildings after Blizzard and Marie. Swordfish hadn't been in a race like this before. Michael got a bunch of his friends and introduced them, and they began playing a game called Obstacle Race. A human would get on the back of the dragon, and guide them through the city that was unfamiliar to them. The dragons would have to race each other through the obstacles the city produced.

Swordfish flew towards the direction Blizzard and Marie were going. "Faster! Come on!" Michael urged. Swordfish put on some speed, narrowly avoiding a large Mudwing flying by. "WATCH WAR YER GOIN'!" The Mudwing yelled. "Sorry!" Michael yelled back to him as Swordfish took a sharp turn down Orwell Street. Blizzard was nowhere in sight, but she suddenly appeared again. She was flying down close to the street, and a carriage had been hiding her. The driver turned to yell something at the two, but Blizzard put on a burst of speed and ascended to Swordfish's height. "You're going to have to be quicker than that!" She taunted Swordfish with a smile, her crystal-blue eyes shining in the light.

Swordfish used her momentary pause to rush further down Orwell. "Hey!" Marie said, surprised. "Ha! Who's taunting who now?!" Michael exclaimed smugly as Swordfish pulled ahead of Blizzard and Marie. Swordfish said nothing as he narrowly avoided another flying dragon, this time a small Skywing speeding across the street.

Blizzard took off towards Swordfish, but was cut off by another dragon flying across the street. "Okay… Blizzard's fast… but if we keep putting obstacles in front of her, she gets stopped." Michael said. "Yeah, Blizzard's athletic." Swordfish said. "She's a good fighter too."

Suddenly, Swordfish heard a voice behind him. "So _you_ admit it." Said Blizzard. "Vulture won't for some reason. Even though I could probably down him in seconds." She smirked lightly. "Well yeah I'll admit it." Swordfish said, smiling. "You kicked Scaleslasher's ass." Swordfish used a human term he had picked up. " _Did I use it right?_ " He whispered up to Michael, who nodded with a proud look.

"Hey! We gotta focus on the race Blizzard!" Marie reminded. "Yeah, stop flirting you two!" Michael said, chuckling. "Hey!" Swordfish said, embarrassed. _I don't like Blizzard like that._ He thought to himself, looking at the equally embarrassed Blizzard. "We were _not_ flirting!" She said angrily to Michael, who smiled and shrugged. _I don't like her like that._ Swordfish thought to himself again, his mind flashing to Rattlesnake, but as Blizzard flew ahead of him, Marie yelling something back to Michael, he found a voice whispering slight disagreement, but he shook it off. _I can't fully trust her yet. Especially with the whole animus thing._ "Hey come on! They're ahead of us!" Michael urged. "Right!" Swordfish yelped, snapping out of it.

The dragonets left Orwell and began flying over the metallic roofs, the chimneys puffing smoke. A small Aniwing dragonet was standing on top of a building. "Wow!" She exclaimed. "They's fast!"

Swordfish noted they were about to fly over a factory with smokestacks. "Try to get her to fly into the smoke." Michael said. "And make sure you avoid flying into some yourself." "Got it." Swordfish replied, and they flew into the smokestacks.

One of the large smokestacks read "Stenners Metals Co." Swordfish saw Blizzard flying nearby. " _Make her move into smoke._ " Michael whispered. Swordfish looked over at Blizzard and did a roll move that his brother had taught him long ago. Swordfish did it a little wrong, but Blizzard successfully dodged it and flew into a black plume of smoke rising from one of the smokestacks. "Ha! Got 'em!" Michael yelled in victory. "Now pull ahead!"

Swordfish put on more speed, attracting attention from human workers looking up through a glass prism window on the ceiling of the factory. Swordfish looked ahead and saw the shop where the races ended, Prichard's. It was so close! Only Vine had been able to beat Blizzard before, and that was because of her tree hopping skills.

Suddenly, Blizzard pulled ahead of Swordfish, not saying anything, Marie wobbling on top of her. "Hey… what?" Michael asked as Blizzard ascended higher into the air. Swordfish watched her go higher. "HEY! PAY ATTENTION!" Michael yelled. "SMOKE!"

Swordfish looked back just in time to see he and Michael were about to fly into a cloud of smoke. They hit the polluted air and Swordfish began coughing. He couldn't see anything. He could hear Michael coughing above him as well. Swordfish pushed forward until he was out of the cloud.

By the time he could see again, Blizzard was far ahead of him. " _Damn it…"_ Michael cursed under his breath. Swordfish tried to catch up, but it was pointless.

Blizzard landed in front of the shop on Dundee Street. Marie got off her back and cheered, her curly brown hair blowing slightly. Swordfish landed down next to Blizzard, tired from the flying. "How do you fly so fast?" He asked her. "I would always try to be faster than my cousin back in the Ice Kingdom. Even though we liked each other we would compete a lot." Swordfish saw a hint of something like sadness in Blizzard's eyes. He was going to ask her what was wrong when he was interrupted by the others. "Who won!?" Vine asked from across the street, waiting for a carriage to pass by, her loud voice slightly startling the horses.

"Of course Blizzard did." Michael responded in defeat. "Only you can beat her." Swordfish looked to see Rattlesnake, Vulture, Anthony, Marie's friend Bai Zhou, and even Polar was there. Bai was a writer for something called a newspaper. A telling of current events, printed on paper in large amounts and sold to the public.

It had been two days since Anthony told Swordfish about Rainfall and the legends about Hamza. Since then, things had taken a turn for the better. It had been sunny since then, and one of the biggest things on Swordfish's mind had been trying to accustom himself to life in the past. It had been 1868 years since Hamza's birth, which is how they told the years. Similar to how it was counted as "years since The Scorching" in Pyrrhia.

Since then, Anthony and Marie started going out. Swordfish had tried to do the same with Rattlesnake, but she still wouldn't really talk to him. And it was understandable. This wasn't the same Rattlesnake he knew from before the collapse of the old world. The one he had known… he had slammed the healing center door on when she tried to kill him. She was dead now. They all were. But then again, they weren't even real to begin with.

Other things had happened. Swordfish had been learning more about the new tribes, and the world around him. The world map looked totally different, yet almost the same. It was like the continent he was on right now, could split into two, and the one East of Arnia would be Pyrrhia. The geography was all the same. There was even more continents beyond this one. Ones to the south, ones even further to the west. And it all looped around because the world was a sphere. This basically confirmed it (to Vulture's excitement). That Pyrrhia wasn't alone. There were other continents.

Today, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Swordfish had been able to temporarily forget about the threats like the Demons and the Darkists. Adnachiel hadn't shown her horrific face, and Swordfish wondered if he was protected from her here. She couldn't go into the past unless she got the Necklace of Eclis. Swordfish had convinced himself he was in a safe place. Everyone else here seemed relatively safe and happy.

"Are you forgetting we have to go do equipment check today?" Polar asked Marie and Michael. "Oh right." Michael said slowly. Marie didn't make eye contact with the Old Monarchy soldier. "Come on." Polar said, and Michael, Marie, and Anthony walked away with the Icewing.

"Hey, you'll be joining us for dinner, right?" Rattlesnake asked Bai, who nodded. "I haven't seen Anthony in a long time." He said in his accented voice. "And I am eager to hear what Pyrrhia is like." "Well… I can tell you it's a lot different from now." Vulture said.

Bai had been raised in Cheng, an eastern country that had been attacked first along with Kibot. His family had ran away from dragons before the treaty was formed. He now lived in the capital of Arnia, Buckombe, and wrote for one of the newspapers there.

"You realize that this is going to change the world forever." Bai said. "Whether it's avoided or not, the fact that this society exists, or will exist, or could've existed." "I mean, it's true." Vulture said.

"We live in a society."

Swordfish turned away from the conversation, trying to block out any sadness he would feel about never being able to return home. Tonight was going to be fun. Anthony and the others wanted to show them some of the foods of this time, and what a night out on the town was like. They were all looking forward to it.

"Well, I do have to get going." Bai said. "I am here for work after all. See you at dinner." Bai turned and began walking away. Swordfish stared after him for a bit before Vine grabbed everyone's attention. "Train!" She yelled, pointing to the tracks that ran parallel to Dundee Street for a bit. The dragonets took to the sky and got closer to the tracks.

The trains fascinated all of them. Their engine sounds, their impressive length, the way they showed off the technology of this time. As Swordfish sat suspended in the air, he wondered what was going on inside the train. Obviously, dragons couldn't fit into them easily. So it was most likely humans in there. Swordfish wondered what they thought about. What was their perspective on all of this? This wasn't weird and amazing to them, it was just another day.

As the group turned away and began to fly back to Lothian Street, Vine spoke up. "Anyone want to race back?" Swordfish and Blizzard sighed. "No." Blizzard said. "You just want to show off how good you are at it." Vulture joked, and Rattlesnake chuckled. "So is that a no?" Vine asked Vulture. "Yeah. That's a no." Vulture replied, and Vine snorted. "You're just embarrassed about what happened last time you raced."

Vulture had flown right into a sheet that had been drying on a clothesline between two buildings and got his head tangled up in it.

"Hey! That was Anthony's fault! He should've warned me about it!" Vulture protested. "He knew I was looking to see where Blizzard was." "Yeah, what was he doing?" Vine asked. "Probably staring at Marie." Blizzard said quietly, and they all laughed, getting a look from a nasty looking Grasswing flying by.

Swordfish smiled and stared out over the city they were flying through. _Maybe… this place won't be so bad._ _Maybe one day I won't miss Pyrrhia._ He thought back to life in Pyrrhia. Constant threat of war. Angry dragons. Evil Queens. His family, and marrying Typhoon. The demons, and being hunted by Adnachiel. _Maybe… I already don't miss it._

Swordfish looked over at Rattlesnake. _There's only one bad thing right now._ His mind flashed back to the other Swordfish buried beneath the tree. _It's that this isn't my world. I don't belong here._

. . .

It had just started to get dark when Michael came around. Swordfish and Vine had been watching Vulture draw in a blank book he had bought from a shop. Blizzard was lying in a corner in the shade, trying to cool down. Rattlesnake was just watching the sun go down, fidgeting with the earring.

Swordfish had told them as much as he could about Hamza and his relics. Swordfish had not told them everything about Rainfall for obvious reasons. Rattlesnake had told them once that Savanna had given her that earring. It occurred as weird to Swordfish that Savanna had the Necklace of Eclis, and a replica of the Earring of Sola. Just how much did Savanna know?

"Hey." Michael said, and the dragonets looked up to see him standing there. "They're waiting for you guys." Rattlesnake put her earring back on. "This is just a replica right?" She suddenly asked Michael, showing him her ear. Michael looked startled. "Yeah… That's not the real Earring of Sola. It can't be. It was meant for human ears." Rattlesnake slowly nodded. "Let's go." Michael said, and the dragonets began following him through the city streets.

Many of the other refugees were still awake. A Skywing tried asking Swordfish something in Dieautish. Swordfish shook his head and said "Je ne parle pas Dieautish." The Skywing walked away, muttering something.

Eventually, they got to the building where Marie lived. It was a longer walk than Swordfish expected, but he didn't mind seeing these streets when the sun went down. "Come on, it's out back in the yard." Michael said, and he walked around back. The dragonets followed him back.

In the yard, there was a table with various food items Swordfish didn't recognize. Anthony, Marie, Bai, and someone else were already there. "This is my friend from the army platoon, Gabi Sitz." Marie introduced. Gabi had short blonde hair and a clever look to her. "Hello." She said loudly.

"Alright so we have Roasted Chicken, cornbread, and blueberry pie." Marie said. "Blueberry!?" Vine asked, delighted. "I haven't had fruit in so long!" Since they arrived in the past, the dragonets had been eating things like bread and lettuce.

"Well… it's not exactly…" Bai began but Anthony cut him off, smiling. "Shh. Let her eat a piece." He said quietly. Marie showed Vine how to cut a piece of pie, which the dragonets watched in curiosity. "I've never seen a fruit like this…" Vine said before putting it into her mouth.

Vine stopped. Her eyes blinked multiple times. "What… what is this…?" She asked softly. "Pie." Anthony said, smiling. "Fruit baked into a crust with other ingredients." "WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THIS!?" Vine asked loudly. "Calm down Vine." Rattlesnake said. "THIS CHANGES THE FRUIT GAME!" Vine said, ignoring Rattlesnake.

When Vine calmed down, Swordfish tried some of the chicken and "cornbread." It was delicious. Of course, Swordfish was used to eating his meat raw and underwater, but it was still good. The "cornbread" intrigued him more.

Bai asked questions about Pyrrhia, which he wrote down in a book. Gabi listened in intently, as she didn't know about any of it. "You mean, you passed through the Necklace of Eclis? The stories about Hamza are really true?" Anthony nodded. "They must be." He said.

Swordfish was talking with Michael when he noticed Blizzard was looking around nervously. "Blizzard? What's…?" "Shhh! everyone be quiet!" She suddenly said. The dragons and humans fell silent. Swordfish heard the sounds of something loud and crashing. People and dragons screaming.

Anthony got up and ran around to the front of the building, and everyone followed him. Suddenly a small Skywing sped past them, but Gabi yelled out loud enough to get her attention. Swordfish recognized her as the Skywing he almost hit in the race. "What's happening?" Vulture and Bai asked in unison.

"They're… here…" The Skywing gasped. "Who?" Anthony asked, and she looked up at him. "Conwell…" She said under her breath. And then she looked him right in the face. "Black Star." She said quietly. "They've come to take us dragons and kill us. They're attacking from the abandoned areas of Verlassen. I don't want to go. I don't… I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE CAMPS!" And then she flew away as fast as she could.

Suddenly, a carriage bolted by. "EMERGENCY!" Someone on top yelled. "ALL OLD MONARCHY SOLDIERS REPORT TO THE NEAREST BASE!" The carriage was followed by armored dragons flying by with humans in uniform riding them. "We've got to go." Gabi said. "Why are they attacking Arnia? Don't they know that's suicide?" Michael asked. "I don't understand either." Anthony said, staring in the direction of the attack. "Hey… I know you're only dragonets, but can you get us to the base and then to the battle?" Marie asked, shaky.

There was silence. "Are… you asking us to join a war?" Vulture finally asked. "No? Yes? I don't know." Marie stuttered. "We need to get there fast though. Dragons are going to die, and any people who try to protect them will die too." Rattlesnake suddenly spoke up, a look in her eye. "I'll do it." Vine and Blizzard nodded in agreement. "I'll just… get out as fast as I can." Vine said. Swordfish looked at the three dragonets. He imagined all three of them getting their brains blown out by shotguns, or wrapped up in dragon snares and captured, and then sent to a Black Star death camp. Swordfish sighed in resignation. "I'll do it." _Because you might die._

Everyone turned to look at Vulture. "There's only four soldiers here." Michael said in his deep voice. Bai wasn't a soldier. "You don't have to come if you don't want to." Vulture was shaking a little bit. Swordfish remembered how bad he was at fighting. How easily the Darkists were able to subdue him. And these were trained military soldiers with advanced technology and weapons.

Suddenly, another loud noise came sounding from the battle and Swordfish turned to see smoke rising from the buildings. "I'll come." Vulture said shakily. "I'll watch from above." They turned to Bai. "I should probably get going." He said, casting a worried look at the rising smoke. Bai turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"Alright, remember that these are not your typical opponents you may have faced in Pyrrhia." Michael said. "This is an organized militant force with guns and other technology you probably have never seen. We aren't asking you to fight, but if you drop us off there, they will try to catch and kill you. They _hate_ dragons with everything they have." Swordfish remembered the story of Axton Lloyd and his anti-dragon ideas. The death camps all survivors would be sent to, where they would work and perform labor, and eventually be sent to die in "The Burning Rooms." Rooms that would fill with fire and burn them alive.

"We need to get going." Gabi said darkly. Another boom sounded from the battle. Swordfish sighed and lowered himself for Michael to get on his back, but Anthony got on instead. Michael got on Vine instead. Gabi went on Blizzard and Marie on Rattlesnake. "Let's go!" Marie said.

Blizzard took the lead, being the fastest along with Vulture. Gabi directed her towards the army base and the others followed. Swordfish kept glancing in the direction of the battle, the black smoke rising into the air. The sounds of dragons and guns rose along with the smoke. Eventually, Gabi directed the group down toward a large stone building. There were already dragons and people swarming it. A flag with the Old Monarchy crest was flying above it.

The dragons landed on special areas on top meant for landings. The soldiers got off their backs quickly and ran down steps leading to the armory. "You five!" Said a voice. The dragonets turned to see a large Aniwing coming towards them. He wore an army armband with the Old Monarchy crest, along with other symbols, meaning he was a dragon with some level of command. "Fresh out of school I presume?" Vine was about to say something when the Aniwing cut her off with a grim laugh. "Straight out of one hell and into another, huh?"

"We're… not from this place…" Rattlesnake said. The Aniwing looked confused. "Then… where are you from? Why are you here?" "We're just… helping our friends get to the battle." Rattlesnake said. "And we're from… far away."

The Aniwing looked at her. "Well, call me Lieutenant Wraith." He said. "And even if you're heading into that place, you'll need those." Wraith pointed to a stone armory with strange weapons and armor. There were other dragons there, gearing up. Some were old, some were Swordfish's age. Some were in between.

The dragonets headed over to the armory and began putting on things they didn't even know how to use. They struggled with the armor, which covered their entire backs, the top of their tails, and even turned into a helmet on top, which conveniently covered the spot where the shotguns were most effective. The other dragons were talking about how grateful they were about the "new design."

Swordfish strapped on one of the mobile rifles to his right forearm. "How do I use this thing?" Swordfish asked a Seawing. The Seawing turned and looked at him. "Are ya daft? Ya point it where ya wan' it to shoot, and pull the trigger." The Seawing pointed to a mechanism on the bottom near Swordfish's claws. "And when ya can't shoot no more, ya reload here." The Seawing showed Swordfish a mechanism on top, which was empty right now.

Swordfish saw Blizzard putting something on both of her forearms. They weren't guns, they were metallic, black things that covered her entire forearm. They had some sort of mechanism on the inside of the arm. Blizzard was being shown how to use them by a Rainwing. Blizzard had a look in her eyes Swordfish hadn't seen before. Honestly, it scared him just a little bit.

When they were all bearing strange weapons from another world, the dragonets met up again with the humans, who were wearing the traditional Old Monarchy uniform, armed with rifles, and bullets and knives at their waists. Swordfish saw the uniform and tried to shake off the memory of the dead Old Monarchy soldier in the King Burkhardt Bank, who had been killed by Black Star soldiers.

"You are aware that you may have to end a human life. This is war, whether you're really participating or not." Anthony said. Swordfish didn't answer, but Vulture and Blizzard both nodded grimly and slowly. Swordfish tried to imagine him ending another life, even if it was a human. Of course, he had hunted before… but these were humans. They were like dragons.

Swordfish got down so Anthony could get on his back. The humans got onto the dragons, and Swordfish felt Anthony shaking. He was scared too.

The dragonets took to the sky, and along with them, so did other dragon soldiers, all carrying humans. Swordfish was about to witness the combined powers of dragon and human. The Old Monarchy soldiers took off toward the battle, where the fires raged, and Swordfish heard the soldiers yell out a scream. A battle cry.

 **A little bit of a shorter chapter this time. It just felt like a good time to stop, and it leaves me more room for the coming battle, and some time to collect my thoughts.**


	34. Chapter 30: War

Swordfish didn't know what was happening as he was swept along with all the Old Monarchy dragonback soldiers, flying into battle. Anthony was silent. The city was alive with people and dragons trying to get out of the vicinity. The loud booms began to get louder as they got closer to the battle. The dragons and humans kept up their battle cry.

Suddenly, as the battle came into view, something happened. The first few dragons in the charge were caught in a sudden explosion. _BOOOM._ Swordfish saw a Grasswing being flung to the side, with the man on her back holding on for dear life. From the center of the explosion, Swordfish saw a Seawing, blackened and burning, falling out of the sky, dead.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" A voice yelled out from all the yelling. Swordfish closed his eyes when he flew into the smoke of the explosion. When he opened his eyes again, he heard Anthony mutter a prayer under his breath.

The battle came into view. There were fires and piles of rubble from buildings that had fallen. There were dead humans and dragons lying on the battlefield. Some humans were hiding behind the bodies of fallen dragons. On one side, there were dragons flying in the air, and humans on the ground, some on horseback. There were carriages there too, some on their side acting as cover. That was Old Monarchy. Swordfish saw their flags.

On the other side, there was more of the same, just without dragons. Swordfish recognized the Black Star uniform from the dead bodies in the lobby of the King Burkhardt Bank. But with it all, there were two strange metallic… things. They moved with strange metallic wheels. They had small windows for people to look out of. On top, there was a part that swiveled around, and had what looked like a barrel of a large gun sticking out of it. One of the gun parts on one of the armored weapons was smoking, and pointed at the dragons.

"Oh god." Anthony said quietly. "What… are those?" Swordfish watched with horror as a large Rockwing plummeted downward towards the armored weapon, roaring. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" The gun simply aimed upward and fired again. The Rockwing caught the full blast of the projectile, which exploded again. The Rockwing fell to the ground, a large piece of him no longer there. "STAY AWAY FROM THE ARMORED VEHICLES!" Cried a voice. "Commander Swamp!" Swordfish heard someone yell.

The Mudwing commander led the arriving soldiers down behind the Old Monarchy front. The dragonets landed, shaken. Anthony, Michael, Marie, and Gabi got off their backs. "…Thanks…" Gabi said uncharacteristically quiet. "What are those things?" Michael asked nobody in particular. "We're not sure." Said a familiar voice, answering him. Swordfish turned to see Commander Seilbrenner, along with other soldiers and some field medics. The commander was on top of a carriage, looking at Black Star's armored weapons with a telescope.

"They must run almost like a steamship. Exhaust is pouring out of their backs. They must be burning coal somewhere inside them to power them. Those guns fire explosive shells." Seilbrenner collapsed his telescope. "Whatever they are, they're very dangerous. They can kill even the thick-scaled Rockwings in one shot."

Seilbrenner then turned and saw the dragonets. "Hey! What are you five doing here!?" Blizzard was about to answer. "Get out of here! This is no place for dragonets like you!" Rattlesnake looked over at their friends, who were rushing into battle. "Yes sir!" Vulture responded quickly. The dragonets took to the sky. Rattlesnake still looking after Anthony and the others.

The dragonets began to fly away when a top window of a building burst open and a Black Star soldier pointed his rifle at Vine. Swordfish barely had time to react before a Skywing flew by with a woman riding his back. The woman fired a shot at the enemy soldier and killed him right there. The Skywing sped away.

Vine stared at the dead body of the soldier inside the building. She had been a pale green ever since they arrived at the battle, but now she looked even greener. "He died… because… Because…" She didn't even finish the sentence.

"Come on Vine!" Blizzard cried. "We're getting away from here!" Vine took one last look at the soldier and caught up with the rest of them.

The dragonets began flying away, but Vulture took one last look back and stopped. "Hey! Someone's standing over Commander Seilbrenner!" Swordfish stopped and looked to where Vulture was pointing. Vulture came to a stop on the roof of the building, and kept pointing.

Swordfish saw a small figure on top of the building closest to where Seilbrenner was. She was wearing a hood and a mask, hiding her face. She had two daggers sheathed on her waist. "We have to warn him!" Vine exclaimed.

Suddenly, Rattlesnake pointed down back at the battle and yelled. Swordfish was blown backward from an explosion. One of the armored weapons had fired at them. The corner of the building crumbled beneath them. Swordfish hit the roof with intensity. Vine was flung at a chimney. Rattlesnake simply fell down. Blizzard took to the sky.

Vulture caught the most of the blast. His left side catching bits of fire and shrapnel from the explosion. Vulture fell off the building, unmoving. "VULTURE!" Vine yelled. Blizzard rushed downward to catch him. She eventually managed to stop him from hitting the ground too hard.

The other dragonets flew down to the street where Blizzard had Vulture. His left side didn't look too good. His eye had a bad scar down it. His left arm had a bad burn on it, with some exposed flesh. His eye and a scratch on his stomach were bleeding quite a bit. "Three moons… we need help." Rattlesnake said. "Do… you think he's going to be alright?" Vine asked quietly, still showing how scared she was.

"His eye isn't going to be." Blizzard said. "That wound looks deep." "There were medics back where the commander was." Swordfish said, remembering seeing the medics back behind Old Monarchy lines. "But that would mean heading back into..." Swordfish didn't get to finish what he was saying before Rattlesnake started lifting Vulture up. Blizzard helped too. "Swordfish, Vine. Watch our backs. Make sure nobody attacks us." Blizzard said.

"Wait… do you really trust us to fend off enemies we've never faced before?" Vine asked. "We've held each other's backs until this far." Blizzard said, her voice sounding strange. "I trust you."

The dragonets snuck through the battle. One of the perks of still being dragonets was that they were small. Of course, they were still dragging Vulture around, which made the chance they would be seen greater.

Swordfish aimed his mobile rifle up, his eyes darting around. They were on another side of the battle that had only one pile of rubble on the street, with one singular Black Star soldier's body lying on the ground. As the dragonets approached the body, they saw he was still alive. His legs were crushed by part of a building and he had a gash in his chest, like from a claw. He was bleeding out and would probably die soon.

"Dirty… dragons…" He choked out, hate burning in his grey eyes, and Swordfish flashed back to the dying Icewing in the trench, back when he and Vine were escaping from Adnachiel.

"Do… we save him?" Vine asked out loud, reaching out to the soldier, but the soldier used what must have been his last strength to put out his arm, as if to brush Vine away. "Don't… touch me… You monster… Die… Burn in… hell." He said "hell" with emphasis.

Swordfish saw hatred in the soldier's eyes that he had seen before. Ezra the bounty hunter, and Asha Wirnman from the Committee of Public Safety had the same anger, only in this soldier, it was rawer.

"Let's go." Rattlesnake said quietly, and the dragonets left the soldier to die without dragons present.

Swordfish and Vine lead the rest of the way, peering around building corners with their weapons, making sure they didn't walk into soldiers. Vine would've helped a lot, but she couldn't go invisible because of her armor and weapon.

"We need to get there faster." Blizzard said. "The bleeding isn't stopping." Swordfish glanced back at the horrific state of Vulture's eye and his other wounds. Rattlesnake had been picking out bits of glass and wood splinters as fast as she could. Vulture's eye had blackened with the burn.

"What… how are they going to beat those armored things?" Vine asked quietly. "They can kill a full grown Rockwing with one shot. Like its nothing!" Swordfish pictured the vehicles in his mind. _War machines…_

"If Vulture was awake I bet he could figure out how to get rid of them." Swordfish said. "Remember, his father made weapons for the Skywings. Of course, these are probably a lot more advanced than those, but maybe they're similar."

Blizzard looked up at Swordfish. "I bet you're right! If anyone can figure out how to destroy those things, it's Vulture!" They all looked at the dying body of Vulture. "So, let's go! We need to get him back to the medics!" Rattlesnake said, and the dragonets began creeping towards the battle.

Luckily, the Old Monarchy front had pushed further down the street, despite the armored vehicles being there. _They must have a limited number of shots, because otherwise they would be firing away right now._ Swordfish realized, looking at the armored weapons, their guns pointed at the Old Monarchy soldiers, but not firing.

"Swordfish? Vine?" Said a familiar voice. Swordfish turned to see Michael and Marie hiding behind a piece of a building. Michael was bleeding from the side of his head a little bit, and Marie was holding her arm. "Rattlesnake and Blizzard are behind us." Swordfish said. "Vulture is dying. He got hit with one of those weapons." "Vulture got shot with one of the tanks?!" Michael asked, concerned. "If those things are called tanks, then yes." Rattlesnake said, coming up behind Swordfish with Blizzard and the unconscious Vulture. "Hamza almighty." Marie whispered when she saw Vulture's state. "Get him back to the command areas quickly."

The dragonets carried Vulture back to where the medics were. He was taken almost immediately by dragon medics, a Sandwing and Grasswing. "If he lives, his left eye will most likely not see again." Said the Sandwing. The other medics began putting Vulture in bandages and applying water to the wounds. "Damn, he got burned pretty badly." Said a Nightwing.

But Swordfish was looking back in the direction of the commander. Back to where Vulture was looking before he got hit with the explosive. That figure… was still standing on top of the building where Seilbrenner was. She had a small figure, and Swordfish could now see the two distinct blade in her hands. She had a wooden mask covering her lower face, and her hood slightly blew in the breeze. But Swordfish could see where she was looking. She was looking down at Commander Seilbrenner.

Swordfish pointed up at her. "Look." He said to the others. "She's targeting the commander." Blizzard suddenly left Vulture's side and took to the sky. "Hey!" Cried Rattlesnake.

Blizzard flew directly at the woman standing over Seilbrenner, and swiped at her with her weaponized claws. The gauntlet-type weapons she had put on both of her arms suddenly extended out blades from their outside with the swipe, making the woman do a flip backward to avoid getting sliced by them.

Blizzard ran forward and began drawing in breath to blast the woman with frostbreath, but the woman saw what she was doing and rolled out of the way, and then began climbing down the building, using windows and ledges on the building as places to put her feet.

Swordfish decided to go tell Seilbrenner about the woman. "I'm going to go tell the commander." Swordfish told Vine. "He's going to get angry at you for disobeying his orders." Rattlesnake warned. "Yeah, I better not tell him about the assassin because he might get angry." Swordfish said sarcastically, and then he bounded through the rubble and obstacles of the Old Monarchy front.

He ran towards Commander Seilbrenner, who turned and saw him first. "Hey!" He yelled sternly, and two soldiers who were on either side of him pointed rifles at Swordfish. "No, no. Weapons down." Seilbrenner said, and then turned to look at Swordfish. "I told you to get out of here! This is a warzone!" "Well, I thought you should know about the assassin coming for you." Swordfish said. And suddenly Swordfish saw the hooded figure vault over rubble and roll towards Seilbrenner.

Swordfish saw her unsheathe her daggers and he took to the sky. He watched in horror as she threw one of the daggers and it hit one of the soldiers with Seilbrenner right in the throat, sinking in all the way to its hilt. The other soldier fired a shot from his rifle at the masked woman, but it missed. "No!" Said the soldier in despair. Suddenly, another masked hooded person tackled the soldier and slit his throat. The attacker was a man. "Teper' Nikita!"

The woman ran towards Seilbrenner, who pulled out a pistol. But Rattlesnake came out of nowhere and flew right at the woman named Nikita, tackling her. Rattlesnake quickly disarmed Nikita and pinned her down to the ground. Rattlesnake raised her tail barb into the air threateningly. "Don't move!" She ordered in the scariest voice she could manage.

But Nikita just chuckled as another masked woman ran at Rattlesnake and climbed up her back, and held a blade to Rattlesnake's throat. "Step away from the head _ubiytsa."_ Said the new assassin. Swordfish was frozen in the air, watching Nikita step towards the commander, who fired a shot at her. It missed.

Seilbrenner fired again and Nikita dodged and rolled on the ground toward him. _I have to do something!_ Swordfish told himself, but it was like he was frozen in place. Suddenly, Blizzard descended from the sky and slashed at Rattlesnake.

Swordfish was snapped back to life, seeing how close Blizzard had been to hurting Rattlesnake. He was about to yell something at Blizzard when he saw her true goal. The body of the assassin on Rattlesnake's back fell to the ground, her throat slashed open, blood pouring out of the fatal wound. Rattlesnake turned and looked at the dead body for almost a second, and then turned and ran towards Nikita, her tail ready to strike.

 _Is Rattlesnake really going to kill someone?_ Swordfish thought, looking at the slaughtered assassin that lay on the street, bleeding out onto the cobblestone and dirt. _She always tried to advocate for peaceful resolution…_

Swordfish suddenly felt something crawling on his back. His mind flashed back to when Anthony got on his back when they were fighting the Darkists. Swordfish's mind flickered to the dead Rainwing with his head blown in.

Swordfish started spinning around and around, trying to get the Black Star soldier off of him. "Sterben und brennen, Seawing!" He heard the soldier cry in Verlassenist. Suddenly, the soldier was gone as a talon swiped him away.

Swordfish looked above him to see the Seawing with the accent who helped him put on the gear. "Seriously! We're ya taught nothing? Ya gotta go really fast to get those soldiers off ya, or yar dead meat!" Swordfish pointed on the Seawing's back. "LOOK OUT!" He warned. The Old Monarchy soldier didn't have time to react. The Black Star soldier pointed his mobile shotgun at the Seawing's head and fired.

Swordfish fired his own weapon at the Verlassenist, but he missed as the Seawing's body fell, a large chunk of his head missing, the soldier falling down with it. As Swordfish looked downward he saw the Black Star soldier's glaring eyes from under his military helmet.

Swordfish landed by the body after it fell to see that the human had disappeared. He was probably hiding or was fast enough that he escaped. The Seawing lay dead on the ground, his wound almost making Swordfish vomit.

Swordfish made his way back over to Rattlesnake, shaken. She was tending to a cut on her arm as Blizzard was making sure the commander and the other soldier were all right. "So, Black Star has sent assassins after me." Seilbrenner said with a grim smile. "Guess I'm a threat." Rattlesnake was staring at the dead body of the soldier the assassins killed. "I… can't…" She said quietly. She suddenly got up and walked away.

"Swordfish… you have blood on your tail." Blizzard said quietly. Swordfish tried to turn his head around to see the blood drops that had dripped down from the Seawing who had died above him. "That Seawing from the armory with the accent… He got shot by a soldier." Swordfish said slowly. "Pike." Seilbrenner said coarsely. Swordfish's mind immediately went to the Seawing student at Jade Mountain, but this was obviously a different Pike.

"I remember him when he was a young dragonet. I personally knew his mother." Seilbrenner said sadly. He was going to say more, but Vine suddenly ran up to them from the direction of the medics. "Vulture's conscious." She said.

Swordfish and Blizzard stood by Vulture's wounded body. The burns looked a little better, but he still looked pretty bad. His eye was now covered by cloth, but he was taking heavy and slow breaths. "Vulture!" Rattlesnake yelled, flying downward towards the crowd around the wounded Skywing. Rattlesnake had tears on her face. She had been crying. _But about what?_

Vulture stuck out his arm and Swordfish could see how burned it was. It looked like he could recover from that though. What looked irreversible was the eye. Swordfish couldn't see how bad it was under the cloth.

"Vulture… how do we get rid of the tanks?" Blizzard asked quietly. "How would he know?" Asked one of the medics. "No, he's thinking of something." Interrupted the Nightwing medic from earlier. Swordfish realized she had teardrop scales by her eyes.

"His mind is thinking about a wooden catapult." Said the Nightwing. "Something… his father made? His father showed him how to destroy it… with a plant… something spiky." Blizzard's head shot up. "Dragonflame cacti. The bombs that destroyed Possibility." Swordfish remembered hearing about how Sora, Clay's sister, had used dragonflame cacti to set off the bombs in the history cave.

"Roll… them under the tanks." The Nightwing said. Vulture nodded slightly, his working eye open slightly, tears coming out. "But where are we going to get dragonflame cacti here?" Rattlesnake asked. "Maybe… it doesn't have to be dragonflame cacti." Said a voice. Swordfish looked over to see Commander Seilbrenner had been listening in. "We have bombs that could be used." "We might need a lot." Blizzard said. "These aren't wooden catapults."

"I'll go talk with Commander Swamp." Seilbrenner said, and he ran off towards where the large Mudwing commander was.

Swordfish stared out over the battlefield. There was destruction and bodies lying all over the streets. This was war. This is what it looked like. The smoke was rising from the battle as the sounds of dragons roaring and gunshots rang out through the abandoned neighborhood. This was war. Swordfish looked up to see the one singular moon of this world.

 _Luna… if you're really there… please… let this end._

. . .

Anthony was hiding inside the trenches. Gabi was peering out over them with her rifle out. "Do you think the dragonets are okay?" Anthony asked her. "I'm not sure. I haven't seen them." Gabi replied. "I bet they got out safely." Anthony remembered when he last saw Rainfall. How one moment, everything was fine, and then the next, he was killed by Adnachiel.

"What do you think their goal is?" Gabi asked. "They don't seem like they're establishing a base of any sort. It's like they're trying to destroy something, and then get out." "Well, they're taking out dragons, that's for sure." Anthony said, looking at the corpse of a Grasswing lying nearby. "Well, Black Star does that a lot." Gabi said grimly. "There's nothing abnormal there."

"Still… you're right. Something's off. They're hanging back." Anthony said, gripping his rifle tighter. Black Star was known for their aggressive tactics. This defensive way of fighting was strange for them. Nevertheless, those tanks were posing a great threat to Old Monarchy. And the fact that they had them was catastrophic. How many more did they have? How easy are they to make?

Suddenly, a Seawing came bounding toward them. "Azure!" Gabi said, delighted. Azure was the dragon Gabi had ridden into battle once against the Camaelists. Since then, Anthony knew the two of them became close friends.

"I need to get you two off of the field. The commanders have come up with a way to destroy the armored tanks." Azure said, lowering herself down so the two soldiers could climb onto her armored back. As the two got on, Azure explained the plan.

"This injured Skywing dragonet said that if we throw bombs underneath the tanks, they should blow up. Underneath the tank is a weak spot. They're like big, metal, weird catapults. Underneath isn't supposed to be a place where you could attack, but if you roll something small enough under there, it can destroy the whole thing." Azure landed on the roof of a building. "But, obviously, a human can't get there fast enough without dying, so dragons are going to have to fly out there, staying low to the ground, and roll the bombs underneath."

"But… dragons are big targets." Gabi said. "The tanks will just shoot them, especially if they're close." Azure nodded. "And that's why we're picking up everyone alive off of the battlefield. We're going to drop bombs all over the battlefield and create enough smoke so that the drivers can't see what they would be shooting at. Also, dropping bombs is something to counter the tanks because Black Star has no way to fight in the air."

Anthony looked around the street to see dragons were taking people up to the roofs. The Black Star soldiers looked around in confusion, some of them figuring out something was going on and taking refuge inside the buildings.

Anthony watched as five dragons suddenly rose up from the Old Monarchy lines, holding bundles of bombs. They flew out over the battlefield and the explosions sounded as they dropped bomb after bomb onto the battlefield and onto the Black Star lines.

Anthony covered his ears from the noise and he saw Gabi and Azure doing the same. Through the muffled explosions, Anthony could hear the sounds of the tanks firing a few times. When the explosions were done, hardly anything could be seen.

Suddenly, the group heard the noise of a familiar yell. It was the unmistakable sound of Commander Swamp, the large Mudwing who had led so many victorious battles, yelling the Old Monarchy battle cry. The cry was echoed by the Old Monarchy army, made of humans and dragons alike. Anthony, Gabi, and Azure joined in.

Black Star responded with their own chant, but it was drowned out by the sounds of a massive explosion. Anthony could see the flames of the blast through the smoke as one of the tanks exploded. It was followed by the sound of the other tank firing twice, and the sound of a dragon roaring and people yelling.

Then, there was another explosion, and a cheer went up from the Old Monarchy lines. "They did it!" Gabi exclaimed. Azure looked worried. "I'll fly down, I would take the stairs down if I were you two. Use the safety of the building." Azure took to the sky and began to fly downward.

Gabi opened the door to go down the building and began to climb down the steps. Anthony trailed behind her, his mind worrying about Marie. Michael too, but Marie… wasn't as much of a fighter. He wondered what had happened to Swordfish and the others… if they were alright.

Gabi led the way down the stairs, with Anthony following behind her. The sounds of the commotion outside were muffled through the walls of the building. "Do you think we got both of the tanks?" Anthony asked. "I'm not sure." Gabi said, back to her loud voice. "We can look through the windows of the room below us."

Gabi quickly walked down the stairs, Anthony still keeping behind her. "How do we know it's safe to come out of this building?" He asked, anxious. "What if there's Black Star soldiers waiting for us? And they captured Azure?" "All the more reason to look." Gabi said, opening the door to one of the rooms on the second floor.

What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. Gabi threw open the door. Next thing Anthony saw was her lying on the floor, a gunshot through her head, blood seeping into the carpet. The actual noise of the gun seemed to come after she was dead.

Anthony threw himself down to the ground and crawled to where he wouldn't be seen. "That was close." He heard a deep voice say. Anthony peeked around the corner to see a small, black-haired woman with a hood, holding a dagger and a mask. And behind her, out walked General Zane Jergens. The head of the Black Star military, holding a smoking gun. They had been watching the battle from the very windows Gabi was going to look out. Anthony's body froze.

"Verlassen is very split country." Said the woman. "Some of its people are righteous, some of them are dragon-trusting filth." "As expected of you Nikita, that is exactly right." Jergens said, kicking Gabi Sitz's dead body. Zane and Nikita walked away, leaving Anthony looking at Gabi's dead body with horror, her blood still draining into the carpet.

Anthony waited what felt like hours, but was probably only about ten minutes, until he moved out from behind the corner, and descended the rest of the stairs to get Gabi's dead body. He picked her up, not caring if he got blood on his hands.

When he exited the building from the back, he saw Azure coming out of an alley. She saw him holding Gabi's body and tears began to fall from her face. Anthony didn't cry. He just stared up into the night sky.

. . .

When the sun rose the next morning, Swordfishhad made an important decision.

Vulture was badly injured. Gabi was dead. Seilbrenner had nearly died. Swordfish had even witnessed Commander Swamp die. He had been the one to throw the bombs underneath the tanks, and after he destroyed the first one, the second one shot him as he threw the bombs beneath it. Old Monarchy had lost one of their great commanders.

Marie had been crushed by the death of her friend. Gabi's death didn't make Swordfish sad. It made him angry. All of it did. This place… was a world Swordfish liked more than Pyrrhia. This was a place where he actually felt… accepted. And some people and dragons wanted to tear it to pieces. They wanted to destroy this world of knowledge, beauty, and shared hospitality and make it their own. Swordfish had gone back to the site of the attack. Black Star had retreated after the tanks were destroyed, but their carnage and death still remained. All the dragons and people dead, the buildings and streets destroyed. And to think that back in Lochberg, this happened to the entire city, Swordfish was very angry.

And he was going to do something about it. He was going to fight back against the dragons and people who wanted to burn away this world's beauty.

. . .

Cassriel walked through the forest of Klykakni. It couldn't be far now. The Shack of Ipos changed location with the phases of the moon of this realm, but even still, it had to remain in this forest. And if you really need Ipos' knowledge, the shack finds you. Cassriel thought that he really did need this knowledge. Because if he didn't track down those dragonets, the King was going to end him.

Cassriel decided to go with his human form, bushwhacking through the forest's twisted branches and thorn bushes. Humans were good for this kind of thing.

Eventually, the rotting shack came into view, Cassriel could see the fire through its ancient windows. He stepped into the clearing, shaking a vine off of his leg. The Poet ran up to the door and used the knocker to knock three times.

"Come in!" Called the trembling voice of an elderly woman. Cassriel opened the door and walked into the shack. A fire was burning in the fire place and a pot of water was boiling above it. There was an old woman knitting a long scarf, rocking back and forth in a creaky rocking chair, her hair completely white.

"Are you Ipos? The demon who knows things to come and past?" Cassriel asked her. "That's not me, you youngster!" Said a voice from above Cassriel. He looked up to see a small finch perched on a beam that ran across the shack's roof. "Oh… terribly sorry Ipos." He said, and the finch hopped down and landed on the woman's shoulder. "Cassriel, right?" She said, and then started chuckling. "Oooh boy, you're in hot water, aren't you?"

"Yes, can you help me?" Cassriel asked. "Do you know if Swordfish of the Seawings and Vine of the Rainwings are in the year 1868?"

The finch seemed to start blinking rapidly. "Did you really need me to tell you that? You should know this for certain." She said. "Orrrr… are you too reluctant to admit your own mistakes?" Cassriel grit his teeth together. "So… it really was them… all that time ago…" He said to himself, and the finch nodded. "Little did you know that by having that vote, you would create such a problem." She said.

"My advice is to try and fix what you started. In any way you can. Accept your mistakes, and avoid a bigger problem." Ipos said. Cassriel stood up. "Where should I start?" Cassriel asked. "Find that huntress." Ipos said. "She could take them out right now, yet she doesn't. There's something stopping her."

Cassriel nodded, and thanked Ipos for the knowledge. "Now, get out of my shack." Ipos said, and Cassriel left as fast as he could.

Ipos hopped down and looked at the intricate knitting on the scarf. The little scenes of things that had happened. Certain events that had played out. The old woman suddenly lifted the scarf and wrapped it around her neck, making two scenes overlap each other. The present and the past, coming together. Oh, what a story this scarf was about to tell!


	35. Winglet 4: Visions

Darkseer could hardly keep his eyes open in history class. He had been placed into the Amber Winglet ever since… everything happened. He was now with Delta, Typhoon, and Frigid. Even then, the four of them had been dispersed among the other winglets, as four dragons cannot make a full winglet work. Darkseer was glad things had slowed down. Ever since the day Scorch was murdered, things had been insane, mind-bending, and overall exhausting.

Darkseer had spent lots of time trying to see into the future, trying to get glimpses of what was going on, but he could hardly see anything. There was a whole lot of darkness ahead. That was for sure. He had been writing down things he had seen late at night. Some of the big ones he saw were a Sandwing in a white hood fighting Adnachiel. Queen Glory watching with horror as her bodyguard Deathbringer sliced a Rainwing in half, two more dead bodies nearby. A burning tree falling to the ground. Tsunami standing in a field, the three moons shining overhead, screaming into the sky with what sounded like immense sadness, Sunny sitting next to her, crying.

And finally, the unexplainable ones. Swordfish, but older and wearing strange white armor, and holding a crown. Standing next to a strange purple dragon, wearing strange armor as well, in a forest, both with tears streaming down their faces, a blackened and burned dragon body in front of them, unidentifiable. And finally, a dead Skywing with a strange wound, like a hole through his forehead, his blood spattered on the white wall behind him.

Darkseer's eyelids began to droop as Webs continued talking. "The Seawings were very angry with the prince. There was even a group that wanted to overthrow the crown entirely and make a new system, but that group disappeared one day. The topic is still something dragons will bring up sometimes as an argument that queens cannot be trusted. Obviously, they are wrong. Our queens uphold our kingdoms, so we must give them our loyalty in return. That is how it has worked for as long as dragon history documents." Typhoon raised her claw into the air. "What would the queens be replaced by?" She asked. "There have been various theories of government." Webs answered. "One where there's elected leaders. One where the wealth is distributed among us all. Fortunately, none of these have been fully developed and actually dangerous ideas."

 _Blah blah blah. Listen to him grovel about the queens. Doesn't he know that the old style of queens have become an obsolete system?_ Frigid thought. Darkseer jerked his head up to look at the Icewing. That was the first clear and concise thought he had ever heard from the braindead Icewing. And it didn't fit him at all. In fact, he even sounded different… if that made any sense.

 _I'll just keep that in mind._ Darkseer thought to himself. He had no idea what to think about any of that.

When history was over, Darkseer walked with the rest of his group to the next class. He had been hanging out with Delta the most recently, her being the only one from the little group that had formed within the two new winglets. He hardly knew the Mudwing, but her thoughts seemed harmless and she had good intentions most of the time. She was almost nothing like Cedar though.

Darkseer felt bad for her. Ever since Cedar died, she had been very quiet and spent a lot of time on her own, not even being with the rest of her sibs. Darkseer knew she blamed herself for everything that had happened with Cedar. She had been the one to kill him. She hadn't figured it out sooner. She could've saved him. She could've saved them all, even Mahogany. These were the thoughts that had been swirling around in Delta's head.

The Amber Winglet had definitely taken a hit. Darkseer's sister and Savanna hadn't been seen for days, and the teachers had been going crazy looking for them. Darkseer had to tell them what he had seen and heard in their minds. The Darkists were now a known thing to the dragonets of destiny, who were looking more and more tired. First the demons, now this. Also, both Rainfall and Scorch had died.

Darkseer hadn't gone to go rescue Swordfish, and now he regretted it. He had no idea where the rest of his winglet had gone. He had avoided it because he foresaw a future where if he went, the Darkists find out all his powers, even the animus, and then use him. Obviously, if he would want to get out alive, he would have to kill dragons. Maybe even Savanna, or his own sister. Darkseer didn't like the thought of killing someone, even if it was someone like Farseer.

Back on the volcano, Darkseer had shaped his world to not be like his sister. Why would he want to be like her?

Darkseer had gotten his mind reading and prophecy from his mother taking his egg up into the sky where the moonlight could reach it through the smog of the volcano. Of course, Darkseer didn't know that until it became common knowledge again with the birth of Moonwatcher. Darkseer had never told anyone about his power, until Blizzard exposed it to everyone in the library that night during the lockdown.

Darkseer had grown up hearing all the thoughts of the Nightwings. Constant dark thoughts and anger. He found out about the Rainforest plan long before he should have, and even about the queen from listening in to the Princess' thoughts. Darkseer learned to be a quiet dragonet. He didn't have to ask questions when he could just get the information he needed from the minds of the other Nightwings. Even Morrowseer could be read, and so could the queen herself if Darkseer was close enough to where her cauldron was.

As the other Nightwing dragonets were taught how to lie, how to fake a prophecy, and about how the Nightwings controlled Pyrrhia, Darkseer was trying to learn about the Nightwing powers, and their history. Most books on them had been removed from the Nightwing library, probably on purpose. He could only pick up bits and pieces of knowledge from the old scrolls.

Soon enough, Darkseer started to see the visions of the future, and it was at that point he knew Queen Battlewinner's regime was evil. He saw the Rainforest burning, the Rainwings being slaughtered, the Rainwings being enslaved. He started to see the war that his tribe had created. The bodies being piled up, the crushing sadness Mudwings felt when their sibs died, the Seawings being outnumbered by the other two queens every time, always suffering heavy losses, the Skywing arena and the prisoners of war dying for entertainment.

Once Darkseer started to see that he was an animus in his visions, he realized just how much of a threat he could be, and swore to himself that he would never use them. He saw visions where he made more tunnels like Stonemover had made. He saw visions where he went crazy. There was one vision in particular where he was choking a large Sandwing to death, the skull tattoo on his neck twisting with the tension.

But as Darkseer had these realizations, his older sister by two years, Farseer, was making a name for herself in the tribe. She was proving herself to be a loyal Nightwing, and sought the recognition of Morrowseer. She became a guard inside the fortress, and a heartless one at that.

Darkseer remembered seeing her push dragons under the lava per order of the queen. Their screams would echo throughout Darkseer's head for the rest of the week, and Farseer would appear to feel nothing. She became one of Morrowseer's favorite dragonets. Of course, he never would say that, but Darkseer read his mind once as Farseer proved her loyalty once more, this time by running her talons down the tail of another dragonet, Mindreader, who being a little nosy for Morrowseer's liking.

Eventually, after a fight with their mother, who was worried that Farseer was trying too hard to look good in Morrowseer's eyes. Farseer started calling herself "Scaleslasher," and not responding to "Farseer."

Darkseer was not too happy about the path Farseer had taken either. The older they got, the less and less she talked to him. She began calling him "useless" and "slacker." Just like their father always did. He had an angry mind, and he spoke it. He truly believed that it was the Nightwing duty to rule the world, and all others were below the tribe. He once got in trouble for sneaking into Mastermind's Rainwing prisons after drinking and punching a chained-up Rainwing named Orchid until she bled.

Everything changed when the volcano erupted. Darkseer had seen it coming, but he didn't want to reveal his powers. He considered telling the newcomers, Starflight and Fatespeaker, but after hearing about how the Skywing, Flame, had pushed the Sandwing, Viper, into the lava and didn't care, he didn't know if he could trust Fatespeaker, and by extension, Starflight.

But when the volcano erupted, and the queen and Morrowseer died, and Glory took control of the Nightwing tribe, everything Farseer, her father, and all the Nightwings like them had built up, toppled. The Nightwings were exposed as a fake, the Rainwings ruled over them, and their fortress and hidden location were destroyed. The pride was destroyed and was replaced by bitterness and anger, and hatred. Which only grew when Queen Glacier attacked with the Icewings during the Hunt for Prince Winter.

Darkseer wasn't sure exactly when his sister joined the Darkist cult, but he suspected it was when her mind got hard to read. It became like Queen Glory's. Like a prickly ball was keeping the mind readers out. Savanna had the same thing, and so did Rattlesnake and Blizzard.

Darkseer had always wanted to meet Moonwatcher and talk with the only other alive mind reader and prophet, except for Darkstalker, if he was really alive and buried somewhere by Clearsight. But Moonwatcher had died, along with Winter, which made Darkseer loop back around to worrying about his own winglet, and if they were alright.

As Darkseer was walking to the next class with Sunny, he saw a vision. A brief scene of himself sitting with Turtle and Falcon. _Turtle… he went through this when his winglet left to chase Scarlett… and he's an animus._

The only other animus Darkseer had ever met was Stonemover. The one time that Darkseer had snuck out at night since Rainfall died, and he went back to the old Nightwing, slowly becoming stone in the caverns. It was something that Darkseer felt he had to do.

He remembered approaching Sunny's father in the caverns again. "Back again?" Asked Stonemover, not even needing to look at him. "How did you know?" Darkseer asked quietly. "I knew you would come back eventually. There was something different about you, and I could see it." Stonemover croaked as Darkseer made his way around to the old animus' face. "What did you see?" Darkseer asked him. Stonemover looked up at Darkseer. "Myself."

"You're hiding something." Stonemover said. "I can see the same worry that once plagued me in your eyes. A Nightwing dragonet once came to me, asking about the old Nightwing powers. I see her in you too." "Moon." Darkseer blurted out, and Stonemover nodded his head slightly. "A combination of myself and Moonwatcher would be something… dangerous. Something the world has not seen for two thousand years."

Darkseer tried to see into the futures, and from what he could see, his secret was safe with this dragon. "I've never used my powers." Darkseer said quietly. "I only know I'm an animus because of my visions. I have no lust for power. I have none of the ambitions Darkstalker had." "But will you?" Stonemover asked, a kind of terror showing in his old eyes. "Sunny has told me about everything with the demons and these other worlds. Will this world shape you to become what you are afraid of becoming?"

Darkseer was silent. There were some futures he had always seen where he goes crazy. Ones where he becomes like the power hungry monster that was Darkstalker. But there were also the futures where he took a different path. Where history did not repeat itself.

"Or have you already done something that makes you a bad dragon?" Stonemover asked. "I once made tunnels that connected different parts of Pyrrhia. I had no idea what I was doing was wrong until I met Sunny's mother, Thorn. I began to realize that what I had done… had not been morally right. The thoughts of violence and killing the weak began to run through me. I had dreams where I killed everyone. Even Thorn. I did this to myself, so I could not do those things, and to remove those violent thoughts." Darkseer looked at how the old dragon was slowly becoming stone.

"If you're looking on how to save yourself from this curse that plagues us animuses… there's somebody a lot better to talk to than me. Somebody who knows how to control themselves and stop themselves. The descendent of Fathom." "Turtle?" Darkseer asked, and Stonemover nodded slightly again.

After a bit of silence, Darkseer turned to look at Stonemover. "Thank you." He said, and then turned to leave. "Darkseer." Stonemover said before Darkseer left. Darkseer turned back around. "Yeah?" Stonemover did one of his signature sighs. "If you are an animus that can only mean you and I are related. Descendants of Prince Arctic. Which also means that the same blood that ran through Darkstalker's veins runs through ours." Darkseer looked down at his talons. "Don't become our ancestor."

So now, Darkseer knew it was time for him to talk to the Jade Winglet's Seawing. He had been putting it off, not wanting to potentially share with yet another dragon his secret, but if the visions showed him doing it, better do it sooner than later.

When lunchtime rolled around, Darkseer quietly told Delta he was going to talk with someone. Delta's face fell slightly, but she didn't try to follow him or anything. She just kept staring out of the cave.

Darkseer quietly followed Turtle out of the prey center, sticking to the walls to keep himself unseen. Turtle walked with a limp because of his missing talon. Turtle had survived the explosions that nearly destroyed all of Possibility, along with his girlfriend Kinkajou.

Darkseer followed the scarred Seawing until he arrived at the same classroom where Blizzard had told them all about the Tragedy of Prince Winter. Turtle entered the classroom and Darkseer waited for a bit before entering the room. He heard the minds of Turtle and Falcon inside the room. Darkseer entered the room and the Seawing and Skywing looked up at him.

"Darkseer… right?" Falcon asked immediately. Darkseer nodded. "Hey Darkseer. Why are you here?" Turtle asked.

"I followed you." Darkseer said. "I wanted to ask you how you keep yourself from using your animus power." "Why do you want to know that?" Turtle asked after a pause. Darkseer shrugged. "Just curious. Apparently I'm a distant relative of Stonemover and I wanted to know how our ancestor became the way he was."

Turtle sighed. "At first, I made some special objects that were just used to make my life easier. That was a big mistake. Your soul isn't worth that kind of thing. Kinkajou argues that your soul only starts to become bad if you do bad things with your magic, but Falcon here has been telling me a story his mother once told him when he was young."

Darkseer turned to the skinny Skywing teacher with an unknown past. "The story of the first animus dragon to walk the earth." Falcon said. "She told me he woke up with the power one day. His tribe is unknown. He did great things for the dragons of his time, so much so that his family is rumored to be one of the original royal families. But, unbeknownst to him, if the power was spread to another tribe, they would suffer a curse. A curse that would eat away at the user's soul. Eventually, the animus power died out of his family, and the only animus dragons that remained were the ones who suffered the curse."

Falcon noticed how intently Darkseer was listening in. "It's just a story. I don't even know if it's true. I was just warning Turtle that Kinkajou might be wrong." He said. Darkseer kept studying the Skywing's face out of the corner of his eye.

"I guess what I try to do is tell myself I don't have these powers." Turtle said. "Better for everyone like that. The world needs less animus dragons. That power is doomed to fall into the wrong hands eventually. You can't guarantee that _all_ of your descendants will be good hearted."

 _The world needs less animus dragons._ That sentence almost rung in Darkseer's head. He almost felt a vision coming on, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it came.

"I mean, you have your own powers that can double as a curse." Falcon said to Darkseer. "Sunny and Tsunami tell us you have prophecy and mind-reading." Turtle turned to Darkseer, shocked. "You mean… there was another one… all this time?" Turtle's mind was racing. Darkseer picked up one thought. " _She wasn't alone after all. If only she had met him."_

"You mean Moon wasn't the only one…" Turtle said, and then sprang up from his seat. "I'll be back!" He said, and then ran off, leaving Darkseer alone with Falcon.

After a bit of silence, Falcon chuckled lightly. "What is it?" Darkseer asked. "Nothing." Falcon said. "It's just back where I used to live, there was nobody special like this. And now I'm sitting in a room with an animus and a mind reader." Falcon's mind flashed to a scene of a city street with all kinds of dragons, some of them not of tribes Darkseer knew of. It came with a name. _Wilmingfield._ But the thought disappeared as soon as it came.

"Is it true that the Skywings used to kill all of their animus dragons?" Darkseer asked. "I think so." Falcon said. "I don't know what Ruby's stance on it is. There hasn't been a Skywing animus in so long."

Their conversation was interrupted by Turtle coming back in with Kinkajou and Peril. "Is it true?" Kinkajou asked, her scales turning all different colors. It had never really occurred to Darkseer how dull Rainfall had always been compared to other Rainwings. Rainfall had also been near impossible to read, but Darkseer had picked up resentment towards the laziness of the other Rainwings in the school, and towards sun time.

"Is it true? There's another prophet and mind reader?" Kinkajou asked. Turtle nodded and Darkseer stood up. "You were Moonwatcher's clawmate, right?" Kinkajou nodded sadly, and Darkseer saw her mind flicker to a scene where she walked into the room she shared with Moon and a Skywing named Carnelian. Her mind worried why she was put with a Nightwing.

Peril stood far away from everyone else, trying not to burn anything. "I'm going to go right to it." She said. "Can you figure out what happened to Qibli?"

Darkseer paused. He had tried to figure that out before, but he couldn't get anything. Once again, like something was blocking his power. But he saw the hopeful looks on Turtle, Kinkajou, and Peril's faces, and couldn't just say no.

Darkseer sat down and closed his eyes. He thought about the dragonets around him and tried to see visions.

What came next nearly knocked Darkseer over. He had a rush of visions. Peril screaming at the top of her lungs, trees and brush in flames around her. Kinkajou crying, staring at some dust on the ground. Turtle, staring up at the sky, a look of horror in his eyes. And then, the same dream of Darkseer choking the tattooed Sandwing to death flickered through the visons of pain and horror.

"I'm sorry… I can't see him." Darkseer said through gritted teeth. "Wait… you can just search for a future? It's that strong?" Falcon asked, and Darkseer opened his eyes and nodded, and then saw the crestfallen faces of the rest of the Jade Winglet. "I'm sorry. There's nothing more I can do." He said.

"That's incredible…" Falcon said, and Darkseer looked at the Skywing teacher one more time, and suddenly had a realization. "I'm sorry again." Darkseer said. "But I have to go to my next class." Kinkajou had become a mix of light blue and violet. A mixture of sadness and curiosity. "I get it." She said glumly.

Darkseer turned to go away. "Oh, and thanks for telling me about animus powers." Darkseer said to Turtle, who nodded sadly.

Darkseer turned and ran as fast as he could, but he didn't care about the gongs Fatespeaker was ringing to let everyone know they had to get to class. He ran right to his room, and quickly took out his scroll of visions and his quill. He dipped it in the ink quickly and shakily, and then, under the vision of the dead Skywing with the strange wound, he wrote a name.

 _Falcon._


	36. Chapter 31: Sides

Suzu Tanaka was riding on horseback when the attack began. She was escorting Brittaney Colens, head of the media and Calvin Abrams, head of Police, through part of Southern Sudland and through the small city of Santa Sotto so they could get to the rural village of Pila for a reason only the two in the carriage knew. The ride had been mostly quiet and rather pleasant. The sun was out that day, and the green hills rolled through Sudland like an emerald sea.

But the nice trip was halted by those winged demons. The escort group was approached by other Black Star soldiers. "Seawing and Skywing ahead. Camaelists!" Said one of the soldiers. "Only a few of us have mobile shotguns and flashbangs." She said, fumbling with a singular flashbang she pulled out of her belt.

Suzu immediately pulled out a shotgun of her own. "Don't worry." She said. "We came prepared. Calvin Abrams and Brittaney Colens are in that carriage." Suzu said, gesturing towards the carriage.

Suzu felt proud knowing she was protecting two of the Prophet Axton Lloyd's high-ranking officials. Black Star had changed her life for the better. Suzu originally faced a lot of oppression in Sudland for being Kiboten and her forbidden love with Angela Weis. But when Black Star came and liberated Sudland, the oppression disappeared. Axton Lloyd was truly a savior. He was able to nearly eradicate all forms of human oppression in the countries and kingdoms Black Star liberated. He was able to show people that the true enemies were dragons.

"All soldiers! Help defeat the dragons!" Said George Machado, the appointed field commander of the escort group. The soldiers rode faster on their horses into the village.

When the group rounded a large corner, the Skywing came into view. He was massive, and a scary sight at that. He had lit all the houses around him on fire, creating a ring of fire. He had blood staining his claws and mouth. He saw the soldiers and roared in fury, spreading his wings wide to make himself look bigger. "ENGAGE COMBAT!" Commanded Machado. Suzu and two other soldiers, Marius and Ghada, climbed nearby houses, using their training to get higher to the dragon's head. Suzu loaded her shotgun, slipping the single slug into each gun. _Two shots before I must reload._ She thought to herself.

Marius ran towards the Skywing, as silently as he could, but the orange dragon turned and blasted fire in his direction. Marius slid beneath the fire and fell off the roof, but the Skywing merely pounced in his direction and reached out to slice Marius with his claw.

Marius closed his eyes and fired his shotgun at the dragon's claw. It was a waste of a shot, but it made the Skywing retract his claw in pain. "PEST!" He roared. The dragon took an inhale and blasted fire at Marius.

Marius couldn't get out of the way. He was caught in the flames and Suzu could hear his screams of searing pain. The Skywing picked up the rubble of a house and threw it at Marius. The screams stopped. When the flames cleared Suzu saw that Marius' body was charred and burned, and his head had been crushed by a rock.

Ghada screamed and ran at the Skywing. Suzu did the same, but didn't scream. The orange dragon turned towards Ghada, not seeing Suzu. Suzu charged towards the Skywing, her finger twitching on the trigger of the shotgun.

Ghada jumped off the roof and rolled on the ground and threw a flashbang at the Skywing's face. The Skywing roared in frustration. "YOU'RE NOTHING BUT PESTS!" He roared. Ghada kept running towards the dragon. Suzu ran behind him and began finding her way through the fire ring he started.

Suzu kept fiddling with her mobile shotgun. It seemed like the straps were a little lose. She kept trying to tighten them, but suddenly, her weapon fell off her arm, and onto the street below. "No!" She yelled. The time it would take her to go get it… Ghada might die too.

But she was suddenly saved when the weapon picked itself up off the ground and began flying towards her. Suddenly, a young Rainwing dragonet appeared, holding it. "Are you going to kill that Skywing?" He asked. Suzu paused before answering. "Yes." She said. "Good." The Rainwing said before handing her the weapon. "I saw him killing these people earlier. He's dangerous." "I agree." Suzu said, still a bit shaken from Marius' death, and not thinking. _She was speaking with a Rainwing._ "Good luck!" He said and disappeared again.

When Suzu found an opening in the flames, she made a beeline for the dragon's tail. She climbed onto the dragon while he was distracted with Ghada, praying that he didn't notice her climbing. The Skywing was hard to climb, making the ascent slower than it could have been.

When Suzu got to the head of the dragon, Ghada was hiding behind a house, the dragon slowly walking towards her. _I've got to get to the weak spot!_ Suzu thought, almost losing her grip with the Skywing's movement.

But when the Skywing slowed again, Suzu was able to get on top of his head. "HEY!" The dragon suddenly said, swiping up with his claws to try and catch Suzu, but she aimed her shotgun down next to the dragon's ear as fast as she could and fired.

The Skywing began to collapse, and Suzu grabbed onto his horns to keep from falling off. She looked to the tree nearby to see it sprinkled with the blood from the shells going through the dragon's head. It really did not fit the sunny day and green hills atmosphere.

When the dragon hit the ground, Suzu got up and began coughing from all the dust that had been kicked up. The figure of Ghada appeared in the dust as she ran towards Suzu. "Are you alright?" She asked when she arrived, and she held out her hand to help Suzu up. "I'm alright." Suzu said. And then there was silence between the two of them. Marius had died.

They went to collect the body of their fallen comrade. It was still very hot, but they managed to get him out from the large stone brick that had crushed his head. Seeing what was left of him made Suzu want to throw up. They sadly carried his body away. This was the cruelty of the dragons. They wanted to do this to everybody and take this world for themselves.

When Suzu and Ghada caught up with the others, the Seawing had already fallen and was dying on the grass. "You… think you've done anything… by killing two dragons?" She said quietly. Her chest was slashed open and she was bleeding out. "Everything comes… to an end… eventually… Your time as the dominant… race… is ending… Camael will see to that… Your cruelty… will be… your undoing… Black Star's actions… turn more dragons to our view… every day… We are superior to humans… in everything… Your actions… come back to you…" She was suddenly killed by a rifle shot to the head. Suzu looked up to see Calvin Abrams with Brittaney Colens behind him. "Sorry. I couldn't stand hearing the devil speak anymore." He said gruffly.

When the escort group was about to set out again, without some soldiers, including Marius, Suzu spotted something next to the body of the Skywing. The Rainwing dragonet, standing there. Suzu pointed him out to Machado.

Machado, Suzu, and a soldier named William approached the Rainwing, their weapons drawn. "Don't move!" Machado ordered the Rainwing, who looked up and froze, turning pale green. He had been red looking at the Skywing before. "I'm not with them!" He said. "I don't have anything against humans!"

There was silence. "I wasn't raised as a Camaelist!" He said. "I don't even agree with them at all!" He then saw Suzu. "You! I helped you get your weapon back!" He said to Suzu. Machado turned and looked at Suzu. "Is this true?" He asked menacingly.

Suzu looked at Machado, and then the dragonet, and then at the dead Skywing. "No. It's not true at all." She said. The Rainwing started to get flickers of red. "WHAT!?" He exclaimed. "And if he doesn't like Camaelists, he might join Old Monarchy, if he isn't already in that pit of degeneracy!" William accused.

Machato didn't say anything for a bit, and then looked at the dead Skywing next to the dragonet. "Open fire." He said, and Suzu took aim and fired.

. . .

Swordfish and Vine sat at the bottom of the hill, exhausted. It had been two months since the attack on Sainsbury, and Swordfish decided he was going to do what he could to help Old Monarchy. The others had agreed to join him, except for the injured Vulture, who was still healing from his horrible wounds.

Swordfish had done better with learning to fight here than he had back with his father and brother. Polar and Azure had agreed to be the ones to teach them the basics, as they weren't going to be full-on soldiers, but if they wanted to use their knowledge of how dragon armies work and dragon weak spots, they would have to know how to fight their enemies.

Swordfish had become a surprisingly good shot with the mobile rifles. Blizzard was good at them too, but of course she was. Even Commander Seilbrenner had noted how good she was at fighting after the Battle of Sainsbury.

Sainsbury had been struggling to rebuild itself after the massive destruction on its south end. Many had been killed and displaced from their homes. People had realized that it was close to the end of Verlassen that had become abandoned after Camaelists destroyed it, and had begun to leave Sainsbury. Which included Swordfish and the others. They had followed Anthony to a small country town called Aiston.

It was the early morning, but Polar had woken up Swordfish and Vine to do early morning flying so that they wouldn't fall behind. But Polar's idea of an early morning flight was much more intense than Swordfish imagined it would be. The sun was just rising and he felt like lying down.

The sound of a nearby crow cawing stopped him from closing his eyes right there. Vine looked very tired too. Her sun time schedule had been interrupted quite a bit recently, and she was looking a lot less vibrant.

Swordfish was still struggling a little bit to adapt to the new world, but it was going well. It was so different from Pyrrhia, but that was somewhat okay. All of the dragonets here had something they didn't like about Pyrrhia. For Swordfish, it was the situation back home. For Vine, it was how dragons couldn't just live simple lives and always lusted for power. For Rattlesnake, it was the cruelty of the dragons back in the Scorpion Den. For Vulture, it was the problems in the Sky Kingdom with those who still supported Queen Scarlet's policies. And for Blizzard, it was the entire Ice Kingdom.

She had told Swordfish her stories of the past. She had grown up competing with her family to try and get higher into the ranks, but Blizzard hated the pressure her parents put on her to do better than her cousins. She began to see the flaws in the Icewing culture, and tried learning as much as she could about other tribes with much less rules, like Rainwings or Sandwings. She took the first chance she could to get out, and went on the Hunt for Prince Winter. On that expedition, she killed Moonwatcher's mother, and witnessed the death of so many others in Possibility.

She left to go to Jade Mountain just to leave the tribe. She told Swordfish she considered never going back, and living out her days in a place like Possibility or one of those other multi-tribal cities. "Maybe I won't even marry an Icewing." She said with a chuckle. "Just to spite my mother."

But some of the training was hard for even her. The dragonets weren't used to these tall buildings that were in the cities of this world in the past, or their fighting techniques, which were so drastically different from the tactics in Pyrrhia. And fighting in the Old Monarchy issued armor made things difficult.

But Swordfish had been doing better than he thought he was going to do with their techniques. They came more naturally to him than any of the others. And that's what he was doing later today. He was going to have to practice against Rattlesnake. They weren't going to actually harm each other, but Polar wanted to see how it would go.

When the time rolled around, it was after breakfast. The food here in the country tasted fresher than the food that was eaten in the city. Marie said it was locally farmed. Swordfish and Rattlesnake got up from the table when they were finished and began walking to the clearing in the woods Polar wanted to meet them at.

Swordfish attempted to strike up a conversation with Rattlesnake while they were walking. "Hey… um… I don't think I really ever got to apologize for not taking action when Cedar slashed you with the knife. I could've stopped him." Swordfish said, and Rattlesnake looked up to the sky. She didn't say anything.

"And… uh… I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry things had to be this way, with me and… the other me… Abyss said this was for the better… and I wasn't thinking what might happen when I asked the visitors to create a copy of the world. I was doing what I could. Adnachiel destroyed the necklace… and that place… Possibility Education…" Swordfish shuddered, thinking about the cold, dark, abandoned world. Once again, Rattlesnake said nothing.

"Rattlesnake… I know you're right here but I miss you." Swordfish said, finding a sliver of courage. "It's like you're ignoring me. Are you angry or something?" Rattlesnake suddenly exploded into words.

"Of course I'm angry! My friend, Swordfish, died! His clawmate Cedar stabbed him, in an act of horrific betrayal! I survived, and it should've been him. I went through the process of losing someone I really liked. I cried! He died in the healing center!"

Swordfish took a step back, but Rattlesnake kept going, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "And then, an 'exact copy' of him, sent by a 'demon,' comes walking in like it's nothing! He might have all the same memories, but it's not really him, and it NEVER WILL BE! And what? I'm just supposed to go on with my life like he never even died, and FORGET ABOUT SWORDFISH? IF HE CAN JUST BE REPLACED, WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF HIM?"

Rattlesnake took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, her wings were starting to flare open. "So yeah, I'm mad. But not at you. I'm mad at the demons. I'm mad at what happened, and most of all, I'm mad at this world for throwing me head-first into this mess! And if I just accept you as Swordfish, then I'm surrendering to all of that!"

Swordfish fell silent. He didn't know what to say. He had never seen Rattlesnake so angry. Rattlesnake wiped away a bit of tears and stormed off in the direction of the clearing where they were supposed to fight.

Swordfish blinked a few times, still staring after the beautiful Sandwing who used to call him friend. Was she right? She kind of was. Swordfish did not belong to this world. The world he belonged to was long gone. The Rattlesnake he had shared all those memories with had ceased to even exist.

Swordfish tried to put those thoughts out of his mind at the moment and think about the training fight coming up soon, but he was a little scared Rattlesnake might actually hurt him. He watched her poisonous Sandwing barb swish on the end of her tail. _Would she hurt him?_ She wouldn't.

 _Would she?_

Swordfish tried to put things out of his mind again and came back around to the current fears and worries. Gabi's death. Black Star's capabilities. Sainsbury, destroyed. The mysterious and powerful Camael, and his army of bloodthirsty dragons. Swordfish shuddered again. It seemed that wherever he went, something scary followed.

Swordfish was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts when Polar landed between the two dragonets, making Rattlesnake whirl around, surprised. "Good, I found you two." She said. "Fight canceled. We're going back to the homestead." "Wait, why?" Rattlesnake asked, trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.

"The explorer Pancho Urbina has returned from an expedition into the forests on the Dieautish colony of Paisland. He found something… big. Something that could change the course of the war." Polar said, with an excited look in her eye. "What?" Swordfish asked, and the Icewing soldier turned to look at both him and Rattlesnake, her eyes actually showing strong emotion. Something Swordfish hadn't seen in her before. She looked like someone had just granted her animus magic.

"Do you two know the story of Hamza?"

. . .

Frog the Mudwing stared up at his father, Lizard. "Why do we hate the humans?" He asked, curious. "Because they are cruel creatures who hate us and kill us." Lizard responded in his deep voice. "They have turned this world into their home, and have no regard for the other species who live here."

Frog turned and looked at the human that had been chained up. He had been stripped of his Old Monarchy uniform long ago, and shivered without his clothes. "The humans have existed for far, far longer than we have." Lizard said. "Dragons only appeared thirteen years ago in what used to be Jeoul. We fought humans for about a year, before we came to a peace agreement, thinking we could live together in peace." Lizard chuckled light heartedly. "That dream would only last for ten years. We were simply ignoring our duty to wipe out this plague. These _bugs._ That is why we dragons are superior to them in any way. We embrace war. We are built for it. We have different tribes to adapt to any kind of thing the world and the humans could throw at us."

Lizard scoffed, and Frog could see the fear in the human's eyes. "Yet, these weaklings start to get to some of us. They were more evolved than we were, and we were foolish and trusting. They rely on their technology to protect their measly flesh and bodies without physical defenses. _That_ is how weak they are, my son."

"If they're so weak… then how do they still kill so many of us?" Frog asked, and Lizard looked over at the human with disgust. "Their technology. Their disgusting things they make out of their abuse to the world. Things called boats. Things called carriages. Guns, cities, poisons, flashbangs! Once they are wiped out, their horrific inventions will be lost to time."

Lizard's voice was calm and comforting to Frog as he told the story of the small monster in front of the two, cowering. "The only thing we shall keep, is their culture. We shall make it our own. Such things like government and languages are wasted on humans."

"But are all humans bad?" Frog asked, and quickly made eye contact with the shaking human, sweat trickling down his head. Lizard chuckled again and wrapped his wing around his son. "Yes. Do not be like the Old Monarchy scum." "Who are they, father?" Frog asked, looking up at the comforting brown eyes of Lizard. "Ignorant dragons who believe they can work with humans. They are fools. They are defects. Never be like them." Lizard said, with a mixture of anger and sadness in his eyes. Frog remembered hearing the name "Old Monarchy" when other dragons talked about his mother.

Suddenly, the human started talking. He began yelling in a language Frog didn't understand, but Frog could see the tears forming in his eyes as he yelled.

When he was done, Lizard stepped forward and unfurled his wings so he looked even bigger. "Big mistake." He said threateningly. "Don't you know humans aren't allowed to speak?" And then Lizard chuckled again. "Sorry, let me correct myself. Yibble yobble bahhh." He taunted, saying gibberish.

"Now son, let me show you how to send a message." Lizard said, and then walked around to behind the stick the human was tied up behind. "Human, I hope you know you are about to die, and so will so many others of your kind. Just like my dragon brothers were slaughtered in the camps." The human twisted his head as far as he could, and then spoke in a language Frog understood. "Humanity… will live on… you will never kill… all of us…"

Lizard then grabbed the human's head with his talon, and held it upwards, and then made cuts with his other talon on the human's chest, back, and shoulders. "This is how you send a message, son." Lizard growled. And Lizard began to pull at the human's hair.

Frog watched, frozen, as the skin around the human's face began to slide up, the skin covering the eyes and mouth, as the cuts stretched and the skin snapped. The human began to scream, but was quickly muffled and suddenly stopped.

When the skin of the head was completely peeled off, Frog watched as the exposed flesh began to slowly fall apart. Frog's father took the scalped skin and examined it. "We'll nail this to a tree later. Other humans will see it and know what happened to him, and what will happen to all of them."

Frog kept staring at the body. "You see how weak they really are, son?" Lizard said, back to his lighthearted self. "How do we allow them to dominate us?"

Frog turned and looked at his father. "If they are so bad and weak, why did we live peacefully for ten years?" "We were weak and foolish." Lizard responded. "Our god brought us out of that. He united the tribes to realize what we could be. We realized the evils of the humans and our true power, intelligence, and strength." Lizard clenched his claw, and extended his wings. "Our god?" Frog asked. Lizard looked over at his son. "Camael. The one who will finally bring the rightful race the planet they deserve." He looked up at the singular moon in the sky. "Then… everything will be as it should. The Nightwing prophets have already foreseen it."

"Father?" Frog asked. "What is he? What is Camael?" And Lizard looked his son right in the eyes, and then looked back up at the moon.

"I just said. A god."


	37. Chapter 32: Betrayal

"Paisland is a small Dieautish-ruled island in the Agorian Ocean." Marie explained, showing the dragonets a large map. She pointed to an island labeled accordingly. "Not many people live there, and most of the island is covered in a large forest full of mountains. Pancho Urbina is an explorer, and he went there, and claims to have found a temple-like structure inside one of the mountains. Which he believes holds the Relics of Hamza."

"The Necklace of Eclis, the Earring of Sola, and the Dagger of Luna." Swordfish recited, and Anthony nodded. Swordfish remembered their powers. Time travel, healing, and "manipulate the building blocks of life." Swordfish was unsure what that last one meant.

"If we can get our hands on those relics… it can change the whole course of the war." Michael said, leaning back in his chair. Polar had brought Swordfish and Rattlesnake back to the homestead where they had been staying. Of course, the dragonets had to sleep outside under old stables. The homestead was meant for humans, but they were meeting outside.

"Who would we give all the relics to?" Blizzard asked. "Probably Queen Hecate." Marie said. "If she had them all, she could contact the Moon Goddesses and gain the mysterious power of Hamza." "But do we want to do that?" Anthony asked. "We don't even know if that's a real thing, and if it is, do we _want_ to bring something so powerful into this world?"

"Well… the commander seems to think so." Michael said, holding a handwritten letter from Commander Seilbrenner on the subject. "But all of Old Monarchy would have to act fast or risk our enemies finding it first. Something like this won't stay quiet for long. People have been searching for the relics since the fall of the Valkskyan Empire."

"What about spies and moles?" Rattlesnake asked, her eyes clear. If you looked at her, you wouldn't have been able to tell she was crying just a bit ago. "If they get word of this, it would be the end of us." "I don't actually think its public Old Monarchy information." Vulture said.

Everyone looked at the Skywing. He was now wearing an eyepatch that covered his wound. An Old Monarchy doctor told him he would be wearing it for the rest of his life.

"Seilbrenner hand wrote this to us. If this would be distributed to lots of people, they would've used the printing press." Vulture said. "Why would he only tell us?" Vine asked. "Because we consist of a man who has _used_ the necklace, and five dragonets from the future. We're valuable to Old Monarchy, or at least, to the commander." Vulture theorized.

"You would get along well with Bai." Michael said, and Swordfish remembered the writer from the capital, who last Swordfish had seen, ran away from the attack on Sainsbury.

"I'm willing to bet he's still alive. He just hasn't written us yet." Marie said, as if reading Swordfish's mind. "The battle was contained to the Dublin Street area."

"Let's get back to what this was about." Polar said, flapping her wings nervously. "If Urbina really discovered the location of the Relics of Hamza, the power each one of those objects holds is incredible, never mind the legendary power you can get with all of them. If any one of those objects is taken, even by us, that power will be released on the world."

Polar took a breath. "I believe that Hamza hid them, not so they can't all be found at once, but so that _none_ of them could be found. Why they would all be in the temple, in the same place, is beyond me."

"What if that's not where Hamza originally hid them?" Swordfish said. "What if… someone else… maybe a bunch of people… found them and put them together?" "You mean… the Daughters of Amrahiem?" Marie asked. "The what?" Vine asked.

"There's a legend… well, more like a fairy tale about a group of eight women from the old northern kingdom Amrahiem. They set out to prove to the King of Amrahiem that women were just as strong as men. They said they would find all the Relics of Hamza, about 800 years after his death. The story says that they found them all, but grew power hungry, and took them for themselves. The power the objects held consumed them. They tried to gain the power of Hamza for themselves, all of them. But the Moon Goddesses saw the evil within them and they evaporated." Marie said. "But that _is_ just a fairy tale."

"But… what if it was based off of a true story?" Rattlesnake questioned. "Many fairy tales in Pyrrhia were based off of true stories. Like the stories about Darkstalker." "Well, our cultures are very different." Polar said. "Many fairy tales and legends are just that. Stories."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a family running down the village road, the dirt crunching beneath their feet. "The Queen is coming!" Yelled a small boy with black hair to Swordfish and the others. "Hugo, those are Old Monarchy soldiers. I think they would know." Said a girl, probably his older sister. "I had no idea." Michael said quietly. "Me neither." Anthony said. "I've been so preoccupied with… everything else I haven't been paying attention to local news."

"I heard she was only passing through." Polar said. "But Aiston rarely gets royal visits, so the residents here are very excited." Vine suddenly got up and started heading in the same direction as the family. "Where are you going?" Vulture asked. "To see the queen." Vine said, her face with an expression like " _Duh."_

The rest began following her. "Have you ever seen the queen?" Swordfish asked Anthony. "I met Hecate when General Solberg was deciding whether Rainfall could be trusted. She spoke with both of us personally. She told me to get as much information as possible. I still don't know what she told Rainfall." Anthony said.

They eventually reached the main street of Aiston, coming out by a flower shop. The rest of the street was sprinkled with people and dragons who were watching the queen's entourage of carriages go by.

Swordfish caught a glimpse of the Queen inside one of the carriages. She had long black hair and fair skin. She was wearing a simple white dress. "Old Monarchy will prevail!" Someone suddenly cried, and cheers went up around the street. "Make world peace a reality!" Someone yelled. "Dragons and humans are equal!" Another cheer went up. Queen Hecate just smiled, but Swordfish could see a kind of fakeness to the smile. Like she wasn't so sure Old Monarchy would prevail in the end.

"She's on her way down South to see Lochberg." Michael said. "The Verlassenist people are trying to rebuild after the Camaelist attack." Michael had a stressed look on his face. "Most places like that are just abandoned after the Camaelists slaughter everyone and try to burn the whole place down."

Swordfish's mind glimpsed back to the abandoned city he had arrived in. The human skeletons on the ground and the collapsed buildings. The Camaelists really tried to destroy everything they could. Swordfish looked up to the sky. It was unnaturally bright for such a dark world.

. . .

Two days later, Polar woke Swordfish up again. "Come on." She said. "You're coming with me." Swordfish sat up groggily. "What? Why? Where?" He asked quietly. "I'm taking you, Vine, and Blizzard with my group on patrol." Swordfish remained sitting up, blinking as Vine and Blizzard were woken up too. It was early morning and cloudy. Swordfish could feel a slight breeze. He noticed Vulture's eye slightly open, and make contact with Swordfish's. "Why us?" Blizzard asked. "Random." Polar replied, handing Swordfish an Old Monarchy helmet while shrugging.

Not long after, Polar had brought the three dragonets back down towards the main street of Aiston. The town was waking up, but there was already a small group of Old Monarchy soldiers waiting in what looked like an old field nearby, surrounded by old wooden fences. Most of the soldiers were dragons of various tribes, but there were a few humans. In addition to the dragonets and Polar, Swordfish counted six other dragons, and three humans.

"Okay, these are the dragonets that are going to be joining us." Polar said to the group. "That's Vine. That's Swordfish. That's Blizzard." Swordfish didn't know that Polar had some position of power over other soldiers. They appeared to treat her with respect and nodded stiffly to what she said.

"Blizzard? What's wrong?" Vine asked. Swordfish turned to see Blizzard looking up to the cloudy sky. "I… don't know." She said, her voice sounding strange. Her eyes looked wide, and without the sun making her eyes glitter, they looked more like her mask of the pretentious Icewing than the Blizzard Swordfish knew. Vine turned away to look at a squirrel running across the field, and Swordfish caught Blizzard whispering something to herself while looking down.

"Alright. We're going to go patrol around Mount Vemi. This is just a watch." Polar said, and once again Swordfish saw Blizzard's eyes widen. " _What is it?_ " Swordfish whispered to her. " _It's nothing."_ She said. " _Just… anxious. That… happens to me."_ " _What do you mean?"_ Swordfish asked. " _I'll just get anxious for no reason. It's been happening more ever since the other you was killed."_

"Lieutenant!" A Skywing asked, confirming Swordfish's thoughts about Polar having some level of command. "Why did you pick these three dragonets?" "Because." Polar answered. "Vine is fast and very good at using her Rainwing abilities, Blizzard is a fantastic fighter and has amazing instincts, and Swordfish has adapted to this world faster than any of them." _So it wasn't random._ Swordfish realized. _She ranks us better than Rattlesnake and Vulture._

After some brief introductions, the squadron set out for the patrol. Swordfish kept flying alongside Vine and Blizzard. Swordfish was amazed at the Arnish Mountains that they were flying towards. Lush, green fields and hills rolled beneath the dragons. Swordfish saw Vine looking at the mountain peaks ahead with awe. Like she had never seen anything like them before, which she probably hadn't. Swordfish looked down and saw a herd of sheep, making nervous noises. A dog trotting around the sheep looked up and barked for a brief amount of time. Blizzard smiled down at the dog.

Swordfish was still in awe at the mountains. The sheer size of them was like the mountains in the Sky Kingdom, which Swordfish had only ever seen once, when he was flying for his life from Adnachiel. He hadn't got to appreciate them before. "Are there mountains like this in the Ice Kingdom?" He asked Blizzard. She shook her head. "Only glaciers. We don't have these forests and streams running down them." Swordfish took another look around as the sun rose above the beautiful scene. "It's gorgeous." Vine said in awe. "Ye dragonets enjoying the view?" Asked a Rockwing with a thick accent, smiling. "This part o' the country is beautiful, ain't it?" "It is." Swordfish replied.

Polar lead the squadron forward, and up the mountain. Swordfish saw the streams running down the mountain, splashing over the rocks. The water looked clear and fresh. Swordfish took another look at the view, the sunrise chasing away the grey clouds and dreariness, and once again, Swordfish felt an immense anger towards those who wanted to destroy this beautiful world. Swordfish saw Blizzard and Vine both looking at the sunrise too, and wondered if they were thinking the same. Vine looked determined, an expression Swordfish didn't see too often on her, and Blizzard looked… sad. Swordfish even wondered if he had seen a single tear trickle down her face.

Swordfish finally decided to say something. Blizzard was his friend right? He couldn't just stand there with her strange tears and weird anxiety. "Blizzard… what's wrong?" Swordfish asked quietly, enough so that Vine couldn't hear. "…What do you mean?" Blizzard asked after quickly wiping away the tear. "Why were you crying?" Swordfish whispered. Blizzard didn't say anything. She looked back at the sunrise. "I was just… thinking about how the Scorching will destroy all of this." Blizzard whispered, and then she slightly cringed, a look of frustration passing over her face. "Really?" Swordfish said, surprised. "I was thinking about the same thing. Well, almost the same thing."

"Mmm." Blizzard said quietly. She fell silent again. "You know, I'm really glad I was able to open up to you and the others." She said after a while. "I had lived with my family for so long… my parents, Frostbite and Icecap, were your typical pretentious Icewing parents, and I was constantly having to compete with my cousin for recognition in the family. That's how I got into the third circle." "Your cousin… Could her name possibly be Frost?" Swordfish asked.

Blizzard reeled back, almost hitting a Nightwing that was flying with them. Blizzard had a look of shock on her face. "Watch it!" The Nightwing said gruffly. "That name… How do you know that name?" Blizzard asked, her voice shaken. She looked like Adnachiel had just appeared in front of her. Swordfish paused, wondering if he shouldn't have said anything. "I found a scroll in Rainfall's room when we searched it once." Swordfish said quietly. "Who's we?" Blizzard asked, still shaken. Her eyes began darting around.

"Me, Cedar, Rattlesnake, Darkseer, Vulture, Delta… and Savanna." Swordfish remembered, shivering a little bit when he realized that he had been scared of the hooded dragons being back in Rainfall and Frigid's room back then, not knowing that the one with the knife had been with them right there. The Outclaws weapons maker had been lying to them right there.

"Anyway, I found a scroll there with drawings in them, and there was this Icewing. She looked like you." Swordfish continued. "I didn't think anything of it, except where Rainfall could've met an Icewing in the Rainforest. But when Sloth… Anthony, I mean. When he told me about Hamza and Rainfall, he mentioned that Rainfall had left the Rainforest, and lived somewhere multi-tribal. He said Rainfall used to talk about his friends, Frost the Icewing and Swiftwind the Skywing." Blizzard looked like she was shivering, despite being an Icewing in a climate much warmer than her home.

"So, I mean, I was shooting in the dark." Swordfish said, gesturing with his mobile rifle as a little joke. "But… you do look like kind of like her. The drawing in the scroll." Blizzard stopped shaking, and Swordfish felt her tail poke his. He wavered for a second, and then wrapped his around hers. She made sure she didn't poke him with her spikes. "She is my cousin." She whispered. "Frost is my cousin. The daughter of my mother's brother."

Swordfish was suddenly jolted back to what was really going on when a woman riding on the back of a Nightwing called out. "Lieutenant Polar! Nightbreaker is having a vision!" The Nightwing she was riding on suddenly shrieked. "Let's land on that point!" Polar ordered, changing the squadron's course and going down toward a rocky point surrounded by thick pine trees.

When the group landed, Nightbreaker got down on his knees and began breathing heavily. "Dragons." He said. "Aniwing… Icewing… fighting." "Angela can you get the telescope?" Polar asked. "Watch for anything in the distance." "Yes ma'am." One of the humans said, and reached into her bag to pull out the telescope. Vine suddenly changed her scales to match the environment, and then switched back to a neutral green and blue. "What did you do that for?" Blizzard asked. "I'm not sure." Vine said honestly, looking at her scales with curiosity. Blizzard then looked up to the sky once more as a large flock of birds suddenly took to the skies, taking down some pine needles with them. The needles hit the ground at Blizzard's feet, like arrows hitting the ground, marking a spot.

. . .

Rattlesnake woke up to see Vulture was the only other one there. He was already awake, and watching a flock of birds take to the sky. "What? Where did everyone go?" Rattlesnake asked after a yawn. "Polar took them on a patrol." Vulture said, throwing a small stone at an old metal barrel across the yard. The collision made a _ding!_

"Why did she take them on patrol and not us?" Rattlesnake asked. "I don't know." Vulture replied, and his talon started to up to his eyepatch. "Hey! Stop!" Rattlesnake yelped. "Right!" Vulture said quickly, yanking his talon away from his eye wound. "Force of habit."

There was silence between the two of them and Rattlesnake's mind wandered back to when she had yelled at Swordfish in the forest. She felt kind of bad about it. He hadn't done anything wrong, but she had all those pent up emotions. And she just couldn't accept him as Swordfish, when Swordfish had died. That all felt like so long ago. So much had happened since that day. The day where everything changed.

"Well, I'm gonna go get breakfast." Vulture said, and got up to leave. "Wait." Rattlesnake said, and Vulture stopped. He turned and looked at the Sandwing, concerned. "What is it?" He asked. "How… How are you able to see this Swordfish as a 'replacement?' Do you not see anything wrong with it?" Rattlesnake asked honestly. Vulture thought for a second. "Well… I'll admit, it's really weird. I can only imagine what he's going through, seeing his whole world ripped to shreds, and only being able to live in a copy for the rest of time. But… I say it's better to have him, even if it's a different one of him, than to not have him at all. He's like a doppelganger with all the same memories." Rattlesnake looked up to the sky. "But he doesn't have all the same memories. He has memories of us trying to kill him. The Swordfish we knew had memories of dying in the healing center." She said quietly.

Suddenly, Marie came running down the small hill leading towards the old stables the dragonets had been staying in. She slipped on some mud and landed on her knees. "Whoa!" Vulture cried. "Marie! Are you alright?" Rattlesnake asked, getting up and jogging over to her human friend. Marie got up on her own, and Rattlesnake saw the look of concern on her face. "What is it?" Vulture asked, seeing it too.

"Black Star." She said. "They're coming."

. . .

 _Twenty three hours earlier._

Daniel Seilbrenner sat at his desk, wondering who to tell about Pancho Urbina's discovery in Paisland. If the story of the Daughters of Amrahiem taught anything, it's that this much power can even corrupt the good.

He had already decided to tell his friend General Baumgarten down in Hemsbury and Captain Wraith, who had used to be a lieutenant before the Battle of Sainsbury, where he lead troops with courage and honor, and received a promotion, and Seilbrenner's liking. Suddenly, a name popped into his mind. Conwell. He and those Pyrrhian dragonets probably had no idea what had happened. He began to write a new letter when General Solberg walked into the room. Seilbrenner quickly got rid of his paper.

Henrik paused, and looked at Seilbrenner. "I hope those weren't letters about Urbina's discovery, commander. That should be treated with utmost importance and secrecy." Said the General in his deep voice. "Oh, no that was just a letter back home. To Evie." Seilbrenner lied. Evie was his fiancé back in Sutten, his hometown.

"There have been rumors about a spy in Old Monarchy." Henrik said, looking out the window. Outside, there was a small riot on the street. This was an Old Monarchy military building in Sainsbury, and there were people protesting the rather damaging tactic used to defeat Black Star's tanks. The old general closed his eyes. In the past, he would have tried defending the military's actions, but with this war, the war to end all wars, he wasn't sure if what happened was right. But it had to be done.

"A spy." Seilbrenner repeated, scratching at his small beard. "For who? The Camaelists? Black Star?" General Solberg shook his head. "I'm not sure. Besides, it was just a rumor." The general fell silent. "But… Seilbrenner… If there _was_ a spy… would you have any guesses as to who it could be?"

Seilbrenner thought for a moment. "Well, if this is a spy that leaks valuable enough information that there's even a rumor about them… I would have to say that they have access to valuable information, so they wouldn't be just any soldier… And my guess would be that they aren't affiliated with Black Star, because if they were, they would've timed their attack here better… Which narrows it down to a dragon…" Seilbrenner thought to the letter to Conwell he had kicked underneath the desk, and a thought dawned on him.

. . .

 _Nine hours later._

Suzu Tanaka stood back as General Zane Jergens kicked the bloody Grasswing in the face again. The Camaelist messenger groaned and spat up some of her blood on the ground. George Machato snickered behind her. "Look at her. An elusive Grasswing, tied down and beat bloody." "I'll ask one more time." Said General Jergens. "What was on the paper?"

Suzu's group had taken Brittaney Colens and Calvin Abrams to the village of Pila, and another group of soldiers had offered to lead them back. The group Machato led had eventually ran into General Jergen's elite squad themselves, and while travelling back to the base as a group, they had found a Grasswing messenger, flying without an armband, which means they weren't Old Monarchy. Not that it mattered anyway. But when the messenger saw the Black Star soldiers, she took a paper out of her satchel and ate it. Grasswings didn't have fire, so she had to improvise.

"You'll never know." The Grasswing spat through gritted teeth. "It's so important… I'll die to protect it… Do your worst you human filth." The Grasswing began breathing heavily. "I will gladly die to protect my husband and my sons." Suzu felt a pang of admiration for the bravery of the messenger, but she beat it back as soon as it came.

General Jergens looked up at the afternoon sky, and then looked back down at the bloody dragon at his feet. "Do you know who I am?" He asked, strangely calmly. The Grasswing looked up at him. "You're the commander of the entire Black Star military." She spat. "Zane Jergens."

"Listen." Zane said. "What is your name?" He asked, kneeling down to see her better. " _What is he doing?"_ Suzu heard a soldier mutter. "Beetle." She replied. "Well, Beetle." Jergens said. "If you tell us what was on the paper, I can grant you the status of Honorary Human." Zane said. Suzu had to keep herself from gasping loudly. Honorary Human was the title given by only the highest commanders of Black Star. It pardoned any dragon named it from the crimes of the rest of their race. It had only been used very few times, and the dragons who were granted it, lived far within Black Star territory, away from the Camaelists and Old Monarchy. They were still considered evil, but were able to live. There were only ten of them alive.

"For my family too?" Beetle asked, hope in her eyes. Zane nodded and smiled. Suzu saw light tears begin to fall from the Grasswing's eyes. "You can live far away from the war, and be able to live as a family within the world."

When the Grasswing's bonds were removed, she stretched her wings and looked around at the soldiers nervously. They all had rifles pointed at her. "Okay. An Old Monarchy explorer named Pancho Urbina found a temple on Paisland, which he believes could hold the Relics of Hamza." Suzu's eyes widened, and everyone around her had similar reactions.

"But the Camaelists have a high-ranking spy within Old Monarchy, who received a handwritten letter earlier today describing this. He told me to report it directly to Camael himself." Beetle said. "Really?" Asked Jergens. "Yes." Beetle affirmed. "Where on Paisland?" Jergens asked. "The Great Oak Forest, in a mountain." Beetle replied.

"Damn… and Old Monarchy knows." Jergens said quietly. "I never thought I would be thanking a Camaelist informant." He chuckled. "Beetle… thank you." Said the general. Beetle gave him a chipped-tooth grin. "No, thank you. This war made me realize family is more important than winning." She said. The Black Star soldiers began to put their weapons down, when Zane Jergens stepped back. He drew in a breath.

"Fire!" He commanded, and Suzu only saw a flicker of the betrayal on Beetle's face before she was fired with bullets from all sides, her wings getting ripped apart and her flesh shot away.

. . .

 _Present._

General Wraith of the Camaelists walked through the smoke. He made sure not to step in any of the bodies strewn about. He had heard that Polar had planned to take the dragonets from the future out on a patrol, and staged the perfect ambush.  
"We apologize to all our dragon brothers and sisters who had to perish for this to happen." Wraith began reciting. He stepped over the body of a Nightwing. "But know that you did not die in vain. Your kind will soon be free. We will break the chains of mankind. For freedom of dragonkind, this is a necessary evil." Wraith licked his teeth with his forked tongue. "If only you hadn't tried to protect those three humans. What a waste of dragon life." He kicked the head of a Skywing, whose throat had been slit open and their body burned.

The Camaelists had shrouded their attack in smoke, making it almost impossible to see too far ahead. Suddenly, Wraith saw a large Rockwing, still alive, but injured. He was on the ground, shaking. "You're wrong." He said with a thick accent. "This world can be inhabited by both dragons and humans." Wraith walked over to the Rockwing. "Are you still so blind? You survived this only _because_ you are dragon. Do you not thank your thick Rockwing scales?" "Don't talk about being dragon when you kill so many innocents. Dragons and humans alike." The Rockwing growled. Wraith narrowed his eyes, and then bent down, and dug his talons deep into the weak spot on a dragon's stomach. Not even Rockwings were immune to that. The Rockwing gasped, and then turned and looked at Wraith. He stared right into his eyes. "Old Monarchy forever." He gasped out, and General Wraith dug his claw in deeper, and the light drained from the old Rockwing's eyes.

"General, we have them both secured." Said a Skywing. The Skywing led the General through the smoke to a tied up Icewing and a tied up Rainwing. Wraith grabbed the Rainwing's head and pulled it up. She was unconscious and bloody, yet Wraith remembered her. He had asked her if she was fresh out of school before the Battle of Sainsbury. "Oh yes. General Stone would definitely like her." Wraith hissed. "You know he has a thing for these young Rainwings." The other Camaelists snickered.

"You're disgusting." Spat the tied up Icewing. It was Lieutenant Polar. "In every way. You're a traitor, you kill without remorse, and that dragonet is six!" Wraith walked up to Polar, a dragon he had fought side by side with. "Well, what are you going to do?" Wraith asked, tauntingly. "You're all tied up!" "You're right. I can't do anything." Polar said, smirking. "But she can."

Suddenly, Wraith heard the noise of wingbeats behind him. He turned around to see an Icewing dragonet descending out of the smoke towards him. She fired with her mobile rifle at General Wraith. The Aniwing called the strange power inside of him and activated the animyre. The Aniwing ability. Time slowed down, but Wraith did not. He stepped out of the way of the bullet, which was still coming at him at a fast rate. Wraith observed that the bullet would have definitely killed him if he hadn't stepped out of the way. It was a perfect shot.

Wraith used the rest of his animyre time to get as far away from the Icewing as he could. He could feel his strength fading as time ran out. Suddenly, he snapped back to real time.

Blizzard fell in surprise as Wraith disappeared out from under her and over to her left. Blizzard hit the ground face first and was then picked up by the throat by an enormous Mudwing. "Nice try, insect." The Mudwing growled. Blizzard aimed her gun again, but the Mudwing grabbed her arm and threw it to the side. The bullet was fired off into the smoke. Blizzard heard a muffled "No!" From Polar as the Mudwing ripped the rifle off Blizzards arm and threw it to the ground.

Blizzard felt the talons of the Mudwing begin closing around her throat. She found herself gasping for air, and the world turning dark and fuzzy. She swung with her spiked tail, but it didn't have enough strength to it, and merely slapped the Mudwing. He closed his claws harder.

"Stop." Ordered Wraith suddenly. "Remember, we don't outright kill dragonets Lizard." Blizzard was suddenly thrown to the ground, and then knocked unconscious by Lizard's tail banging her on the head. "Let's just take the Rainwing and go." Wraith said, and the Camaelists began to leave, taking the captured Vine with them. "You have earned a special place in Hell, Wraith." Polar called, still bound up among her dead soldiers. Tears fell from her face in sadness and anger. "Why would I go to Hell?" Wraith called back. "When God is on our side?" Wraith put out the order, and the Camaelists began lighting the whole place on fire. Polar and the dragonet would die as an "accident." Polar screamed after Wraith and his soldiers as they flew away. "OLD MONARCHY FOREVER!" And the flames engulfed the horrific scene.

. . .

Blizzard was not unconscious. She was only acting. She couldn't be defeated that easily. She knew it was impossible. But she could still get injured. She had to get out of the flames as fast as she could. She got up and looked around her at the burning trees and smoke. The dead bodies of the squadron she had been flying with no more than an hour ago were littered all over the place. _I wonder if Polar is still alive?_ She wondered, but she could not see the lieutenant anywhere.

Blizzard got up and began flying through the smoke. If she was correct, she had seen what had happened to Swordfish. She flew out of the smoke and flames and looked further down the mountain. It looked like nothing had happened down further, but she could small chips taken out of trees and a small branch missing. She traced the path until she saw a large blueberry bush with a large indent in it. She flew down to it, coughing from the smoke.

She pawed through the bush until she came across the unconscious Swordfish. He had fallen off the outcropping when the attack started. He might have gotten a mild concussion. "Hey!" Blizzard said, shaking him awake. "Come on, we need to go save Vine!" "W…what?" Swordfish asked, shaken awake. "What happened?" Blizzard grimaced. "Betrayal."


	38. Chapter 33: Spies

"It all started… so long ago." Blizzard began. She and Swordfish were flying in the direction they had seen the Camaelists go in. "Frost and I grew up as friends, but with a rivalry. She was very much an Icewing. My parents were nobles, and so were hers, so we competed within the ranks, and for the recognition of the family." Blizzard swallowed, and Swordfish could see how nervous she was about telling this story. "But Frost… was an animus."

Swordfish would have reacted differently in the past, but now, an animus seemed like something relatively normal.

"She and I were the only ones who knew. She had no idea how she had gained her powers. She wasn't of royal blood." Blizzard paused, as if struggling to remember. "But she trusted me with her secret. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but every once in a while… She would start to get all dizzy and weak, and I couldn't help but wonder if she was using her powers in secret, and what she was doing with them." Blizzard paused for a bit, and the two dragonets looked around to make sure they weren't being tailed. "Eventually, I got too curious and spied on her. She was using her magic all the time. She enchanted scrolls to read themselves, and enchanted everyone who was suited to marry her get a horrific disease. When I confronted her about it, she confirmed it to me that she was very close to losing her soul. She said she had dreams of slaughtering every noble in the Ice Kingdom." Blizzard looked like she was going to throw up.

"I said she had to get out of the Ice Kingdom. She agreed, but she put a spell on me. She said if word ever got out she was an animus, and I had helped her escape, losing the Icewings another animus, they might kill me. She put a spell on me that made me a fantastic fighter, and invincible to any normal methods of killing me, and made me immune to any animus magic. She then faked her own death by enchanting a blanket to look like a dead version of herself."

"So THAT'S how you got past Darkstalker's enchantment on the mountains at the old Night Kingdom!" Swordfish said, glad that was finally resolved. Blizzard nodded.

"I helped Frost escape, and I haven't seen her since. But if you say Rainfall knew a Frost… and she resembled me, it could have been her." Blizzard said, still shaking. "I'm sorry for my nervousness, I haven't ever told anyone about her, or any of it."

"It's alright." Swordfish reassured her, glad she was finally telling him the truth. "So, that's how you survived the Darkists too, huh?" He asked. Blizzard quickly nodded. "And… if you're immune to animus magic… does that mean…" Swordfish began, and then stopped. "What?" Blizzard asked, concerned. Swordfish was lost in memory, remembering the Blizzard from the old world. When Cassriel had turned the world against Swordfish, that version of Blizzard was not affected. Swordfish remembered her at the end of the hallway, her eyes normal, fiddling with her ear, and when he called out to her, she ran away.

"When Cassriel turned the old world against me, that world's version of you remained unaffected by him." Swordfish said. Blizzard blinked. "Really?" She asked, intrigued. "If that version of you had the same enchantment on her, does that mean the Demons draw their real power from animus magic?" Swordfish theorized.

"Well… maybe." Blizzard said. "But… have you noticed that there doesn't seem to be animus magic here? Nor have any demons crossed our path." "Yeah, I did notice that." Swordfish said, nodding. "I wonder who the first animus dragon was." "Well, maybe we'll get to meet him or her." Blizzard said.

Suddenly, Blizzard pointed in the distance. Two dragons were flying towards them. Suddenly, Swordfish realized he was wearing his Old Monarchy armband, and so was Blizzard. " _Quick! Get rid of your armband!"_ Swordfish whispered. He unclipped his as fast as he could and so did Blizzard. Swordfish didn't know what to do with his armband so he threw it down below. Blizzard did the same. They could always get new ones.

"Hey! You shouldn't be out here!" Yelled one of the dragons, a Sandwing. It had worked. They hadn't seen the armbands. They had fallen down into the rocky terrain below. "All dragonets coming of age need to be reporting to the base of Mount Magetticus." Said the other dragon, an Aniwing. "Your initiation into the Scales of Liberty is in a few hours!"

. . .

Vine woke up in a strange building. There were strange, burned tapestries hanging from the wall. A large Rockwing was standing in front of her. "Ah, you're awake." He said in a very deep voice. "Wraith told me your name is Vine. Is this so?" Vine didn't know what to say. She expected to still be restrained, but she got up to find herself freed from her restraints. She flared her wings. "W…Where am I?" Vine asked.

"I asked you a question." Said the Rockwing calmly. "Is your name Vine?" Vine faltered before answering. "…Yes." She said. "Nice to meet you Vine, I am Stone. You may hear others refer to me as General Stone, but you may just call me Stone. Is that clear?" "… I guess?" Vine responded. Stone's smile suddenly fell. "That was a 'yes or no' question, Vine. Is that clear?" Vine took a step backward. "Yes." She said quietly.

Vine took a look at the door. It had been broken open to make the gap big enough for even Stone to fit through. "You want to escape?" Stone asked, and chuckled. "Go ahead and do it. Leave." Vine turned toward the door. "But know that you are wearing a prisoner's armband instead of your Old Monarchy one." Stone said. "It cannot come off unless unlocked. You cannot change your scales and hide yourself. Go ahead and run. The others aren't as generous as I am."

Stone suddenly beat his wings loudly. Enough so that they made a sound. A young Rainwing a little bit older than Vine walked into the room, wearing an armband similar to the one Vine had around her arm. "Vine, this is Toucan. She has been with me since the beginning of the war. Before I saved her, she was an Old Monarchy soldier, like you were." Vine blinked. _Was she no longer part of Old Monarchy?_

"Being with Stone is much better than the life I used to lead." Toucan said suddenly. Her voice sliced through Vine's ears. She didn't sound… real. "Stone keeps me away from the war, and from the other Camaelists who might want to kill me for what I did in the past." Toucan's scales remained blue for the whole time she talked. Blue meant calm.

"Toucan… you haven't even introduced yourself." Stone said, chuckling. "Thank you Stone, I forgot." She said in her strange voice. "Hello Vine." She said, turning to Vine. "I am Toucan." Vine didn't respond. This was officially creepy. She could feel the pale green begin to wash over her scales. "Don't be afraid Vine." Stone said, and Toucan nodded. "Your life is about to get so much better."

. . .

Marie watched from underneath the bushes as the Black Star troops got off of their horses and took a rest. The group was dangerously large. Some of them even had bloodstains on their uniforms, like they had recently killed something. "Sir!" One of them called, and Marie watched as another soldier stepped forward. "We should get going as fast as we can. We're deep in enemy territory. Hell, we're in _Arnia_." "I know." Sighed the soldier in charge. "Trust me Kozlov. I know. But we can't just keep going until we reach the Lochberg area. You knew we had to stop. The horses need rest."

 _Just how far south are they going?_ Marie wondered. _All the way to the Sudland_ _front?_ Marie tried listening in on two other soldiers talking. "Tror du virkelig det, Helen?" One asked. Marie recognized the language as Vestadese, the language of the country of Vestad. Luckily for Marie, she had grown up near the Arnish/Vestadese border, and knew some of the language. _Do you really think so, Helen?_ Is what the soldier had asked.

"I'm not sure." The other soldier, Helen, replied, still in Vestadese. "Apparently, Urbina really did find out."

Marie's eyes widened. They knew about Paisland. She started shifting herself backward to get out from under the bushes. She had to go tell the others as fast as she could, and then somehow get the message to command. Marie was almost out of the bush when she snapped a twig. The soldiers glanced over in her direction. The one named Kozlov reached for his gun. "Calm down." Said the commanding officer. "You're all nervous because we're in enemy territory." Marie stayed perfectly still. She had to stop herself from breathing too loud. She heard a musket load. She had to get out as fast as she could or pray that they would leave out of fear of getting caught themselves.

 _How did Black Star know? What happened?_ Marie thought, and then remembered what Vulture had said. Seilbrenner hand wrote those letters. It wasn't public information, only available to a select few. Which meant that there was a spy deep within Old Monarchy.

 _But who?_

. . .

George Machado rode up toward General Jergens. "Are you sure it's a good idea to do this?" He asked. "What do you mean?" Jergens asked, turning his head toward George. "Not telling the Prophet about Hamza's relics. I mean… he should know about them more than anyone, he is the Prophet." "We have no time to waste." The General said gruffly. "Old Monarchy knows about this, and so do the Camaelists. We need to get there first. We need to get there _now._ That's why I've sent messengers to all other nearby squadrons. We will all go to Paisland, and steal the relics, and _then_ return to Lloyd and give them to him, so he can truly become the savior of Earth."

George exhaled. Something about this didn't feel right. His mind recalled the story of The Daughters of Amrahiem, and how Luna could see the hunger for power and unfaithfulness within them, and they evaporated. There had always been secret talk that Zane Jergens could overthrow Axton Lloyd and take control of Black Star, and still have enough support from the public that it could work. George knew that there was only one person who was closer to the Prophet than Jergens, and that was Abd Al-Malik, the high priest, who was far too loyal to ever do anything.

Machado wondered if it was really the threat of the Camaelists and Old Monarchy that was propelling Jergens to do this, or if it was something else. What if he didn't _want_ Axton Lloyd to know about the Relics of Hamza?

. . .

"At the very beginning…" Began Abd Al-Malik, reading from the Holy Words, the Prophet Hamza's book. Brittaney Colens shifted in her seat. She couldn't stop thinking about the death of that Rainwing dragonet. He looked… so innocent, despite being a devil. She had gone to hear the High Priest speak verses from the Holy Words to try and forget, and reassure herself that what she was doing was right.

"God created Earth, and breathed life into the plants and animals. But eventually knew he had to move on from this small world. He created three daughters, Luna, Sola, and Eclis, to watch over Earth, and then left, to do other, greater things."

The Holy Words were the stories of the world the Moon Goddesses told Hamza. This divine knowledge was meant to guide humanity through all the years. "Eventually, it was Sola who created the Angels, made to help watch over Earth. They were named, all twelve. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes, and Hephaestus. Created with godly blood running through their veins. Winged, yet human. Reptilian, yet mammal. Horned, yet haired."

Everyone knew this story, yet it was haunting to hear the High Priest tell it, especially at a time like this. This war had driven people to question if the dragons were a product of divine creation. "But Luna and Eclis feared that Sola had made them too powerful, and they would overthrow them as rulers of Earth. The two killed all of the Angels, save Zeus and Hera, which Luna transformed into mortal life, like everything else on Earth. They lost their wings, their horns, and became Adam and Eve, the first two Postangels. Humans. That same, godly, yet mortal blood, runs through all of us, and that is the reason, we are destined to live on as the dominant species."

Abd Al-Malik paused, and the church was filled with silence. "Many wonder if the dragons are Postangels as well. Sent on to us as punishment for heresy!" He slammed his fists on the wooden podium. "And this may be true! These devils! The physical embodiment of all the cursed power that the Moon Goddesses rightfully stole away from us! They are everything the Angels lost to become Postangels!" The crowd was still silent. Some people were on their knees praying. "And if this is true." Said Abd Al-Malik, quieting down again. "Then it is our duty to be faithful to The Moon Goddesses and rid the world of the remains of the Angels!" " _Amen._ " Muttered the crowd.

The High Priest fell silent when the church doors opened, and Axton Lloyd himself walked in, guards clean and crisp behind him.

Abd Al-Malik turned and as fast as he could, and clutched his right hand to his heart, and left fist to the sky. "Hail the Prophet, the man who knows the holy will!" He cried, and everyone did the same salute. "HAIL!" The people recited.

Lloyd smiled and nodded. "Thank you for the warm welcome." He said in his voice that sent chills down Brittaney's spine. "My savior, why are you here?" Abd Al-Malik asked. Lloyd wavered for a second. "Celebration. I… have a feeling things have taken the right course."

. . .

Swordfish stood in the lines of dragonets his age, annoyed by the Nightwing jittering nervously next to him. He had lost Blizzard in all the rows of dragonets. The rows of dragonets chattered nervously. Swordfish and Blizzard had been taken back to a Camaelist village, the remnants of an old town tucked away behind Mount Magetticus, for their initiation into the Camaelist army, the Scales of Liberty. Swordfish had figured out that the Camaelists used a draft system with dragonets aged 6, and initiated them into the war. The two guards had thought Swordfish and Blizzard were Camaelists because of their lack of armbands, and brought them back here.

"Do you think Camael will speak here?" Asked an Icewing in front of Swordfish to a Grasswing. "Don't think so." Said the Grasswing. "He's far too busy, and he would burn down the entire forest!" Swordfish felt his stomach drop. _Camael himself…_ He remembered Anthony telling him about the leader of the Camaelists. He burned everything around him. Almost as big as Jade Mountain itself.

Suddenly, Swordfish watched as Wraith, the traitor who had talked to Vine before the Battle of Sainsbury walked up in front of the crowd of dragonets. "Dragonets." He began. The crowd fell silent. Wraith extended his dark purple wings. "You are the next generation of the Scales of Liberty. The fighting force for our kind." Swordfish was glad the Icewing in front of him was big enough he could hide his face from Wraith. There was a chance Wraith would recognize him. Swordfish found himself worrying about Blizzard. He couldn't see her in the crowd. Did she have enough cover?

Compared with the rest of the Camaelist leaders, with their brutality and gruff exteriors, Wraith was oddly well-spoken and considerably quieter than the others. Giving his speech without roars and growls.

"You are at the doorstep of becoming legend. It is true, we as the Scales of Liberty will be remembered for centuries as the army that brought mankind to its knees, and brought dragons from dirt and nothingness to the superior rulers of Earth." The dragonets around Swordfish began flapping their wings in agreement.

"And yet we have one dragon who we thank for showing to us what we can truly do." Wraith's words got harsher and his eyes got more intense. "It is Camael who showed us that we are stronger and better suited for this world than those pests. Those _insects._ They have infested this world for long enough! And what do you do with pests? You _exterminate_ them!" The dragonets began cheering.

Swordfish had heard what Wraith had done from Blizzard on the way here. He had no time to grieve over Polar's death, along with all the other dragons and the humans too. He remembered waking up inside the cell in the dragon prison, and Polar being the first dragon to talk to him.

"And that is why he is here now." Wraith said quietly, and the crowd seemed to get even quieter. Swordfish felt the jittery Nightwing next to him suddenly stop. Wraith stepped to the side and a plain looking Seawing walked up to the piece of building that Wraith had been standing on. Swordfish had to stop himself from reeling back at how much Camael looked like his father, Urchin.

"What is it that drives us?" Camael growled. Swordfish was still staring in amazement. This was Camael? The enormous creature Anthony spoke of? He hardly looked threatening at all.

"What is it that we sense from the moment we crawl out of our eggs? Is it anger? Is it fear? What moves us to do what we do? Why is it that we are born with talons and claws, teeth and fire, wings and horns? It is because it is INTENDED for us to dominate this world! That is what we hatch to do!" The dragonets began clapping vigorously. "You should be HONORED to fight for the claiming of this world! What the general said was true! You will be remembered for centuries in dragon legend as the brave soldiers that stamped out mankind!"

The dragonets continued clapping as Swordfish stared at Camael. Apparently the most terrifying dragon in existence. Something about him seemed off, made Swordfish's scars from Cassriel's stabbing hurt. There was something… unnatural about him. Other than the fact that Anthony had told Swordfish Camael was an enormous monster, and here he was, a normal Seawing.

Swordfish kept studying Camael, making sure Wraith couldn't get a good look at him, as he gave his speech. Worrying about Vine, Blizzard, and everyone back at the homestead.

. . .

"Vine, I want you to listen to me." Stone said calmly. Vine felt uneasy watching the staring eyes of Toucan behind the Camaelist general watch her every move. "You cannot go back to Old Monarchy. If you try to, the others, who have no appreciation for your… beauty. They will kill you without hesitation. I am your island of safety."

Vine certainly didn't feel safe. Stone was big, intimidating, and creepy. Toucan didn't provide any kind of comfort either. She hardly blinked. "What do you mean my beauty?" Vine asked. Stone stopped, and held out one of his talons. "Toucan, please get me a cigar." He ordered, and she sprang into action, running to a wooden crate across the room with _TOSTO PREMIUM CIGARS_ stamped on the side. Toucan ran back as fast as she could with the tobacco product, which Vine had learned about from Michael.

Stone breathed the smallest bit of fire on the end of the cigar and put it in his mouth, puffing smoke up towards the half-broken ceiling. "You see Vine, Rainwings are the most beautiful of the tribes to me. Your color-changing scales, your exotic venom, your exquisite horns and spines." Stone took another puff of his cigar. "Now, I'm an old dragon. I don't actually know how old I really am, since when we dragons appeared in Jeoul thirteen years ago, we all appeared at different ages. I have been through many battles in both wars. I am old and weary, yet I continue to battle for freedom and righteousness. And at the end of the day, it pleases me to have such a young, beautiful thing soothe me. It reminds me what I'm fighting for."

"So I'm going to be your servant?!" Vine asked, stepping away, flaring her wings. "It's not a bad thing." Toucan said, sounding genuinely concerned and confused why Vine would be angry at this. "I won't overwork you or anything." Stone said.

A Seawing suddenly appeared at the busted-down doorway, and said something in another language. Stone responded in the same language, and the Seawing nodded and left. "I apologize I have to leave at a time like this." Stone said. "Toucan, why don't you tell her why it's not so bad." Stone got up and slowly walked out the door, sending an anxious look back at the two Rainwings before moving out of sight.

Vine turned to Toucan almost immediately. "Okay, how are we going to escape? Stone has the keys to the armbands." Vine said, tapping the metallic armband with one claw. If only she had any of the others with her. They were all so much better at this kind of thing. Vine flapped her wings a few times and peeked her head out one of the holes in the roof. Stone was right, if she tried to escape, there was no way she would be able to survive. She was deep inside Camaelist territory. Dragons of all different kinds of tribes flew around.

Vine descended again. _Come on Vine! This isn't the Rainforest anymore! Things aren't going to be easy!_ Vine didn't have much of a memory, but she knew she must have grown up in the Rainforest, and been a lazy Rainwing like Jambu, or any of those other lazy dragons.

"Do you know if rocks can do anything to the metal?" Vine asked Toucan, but she turned to see Toucan staring at her like she had just grown an extra head. "What are you doing?" Toucan asked. "Why would you want to leave?"

Vine turned and looked at the other Rainwing. "You mean that _wasn't_ an act!?" Vine asked incredulously. "You really _like_ being his servant?" Toucan nodded vigorously. "He keeps me safe. He makes me feel needed. I love him." Toucan's scales had never wavered from blue. Vine felt the pale green begin to creep over her scales again. _What had Stone done to her?_ _What kind of trance was she in?_

"Did he do something to you to make you this way?" Vine asked, worrying Stone would do the same to her, and then she would be a moon-eyed servant for the rest of time too. "As I said, he made me feel safe. He made me feel loved. He provided shelter from the war. As the world burns and everyone else dies, I am protected within his love." That sentence, along with Toucan's wide eyes and unreal voice, made Vine begin to shake. "Why would you want to leave? Why would you want to go die, when you can stay here and be loved?"

"No, I mean… what did he do to you that was unnatural?" Vine asked, more like a wonder out loud than a question to Toucan. _If she's been with him since the beginning of the war, and hasn't just ran outside, not caring if she dies or not, I wonder… if this is how she really feels. Was she like me when she first came here?_

"What does he make you do?" Vine asked. "He doesn't make me do anything." Toucan replied. "I _want_ to serve him. I do this out of my own free will." "You don't _have_ free will here!" Vine countered. "If you were really free, you wouldn't be chained to him like this. He's convinced you it's your own will, but you're really just his slave!" "No." Toucan replied. "Uh… yeah." Vine said, but Toucan didn't seem to be listening to her. She put her talons over her ears, clutching them tightly. "No. No. No. No. NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOO!" Toucan began screaming, her eyes slammed shut and her talons gripped tightly over her ears. "NOO! NOO! NOO!" Vine stepped back, the pale green feeling a little more intense.

. . .

"Alright." Said the Sargent, leading Group C into a cave into the side of the mountain. "Here is where you will sleep." The large group of dragonets had been divided into groups, and Swordfish had noted that there was one of every tribe in each group. 10 dragonets per group. Swordfish found it interesting how similar they were to the winglets in Jade Mountain.

Swordfish filed in with the other dragonets, who quickly found a spot in the cave to put down their stuff. Swordfish stood in the middle of the cave as everyone claimed a spot for themselves. _Great._ He thought. _Not enough room for me anywhere._ Suddenly, a Grasswing called out to him. "Hey Seawing! There's room right here." The Grasswing moved a rock to reveal just enough space for Swordfish to put his stuff down. "Thanks." Swordfish said quietly, removing his simple satchel and putting it there.

"I don't think we've met." Said the Grasswing. "The name's Barley." "I'm Swordfish." Swordfish said. "You know, I've only ever really known one Seawing, and she was a jerk." Barley said. "Hm." Swordfish replied, lost in thought, wondering what was going on with Blizzard. He had seen her get put into Group A.

"Hey, who's ready for the arena!?" Asked a Skywing to the group of dragonets, which they responded to with shouts of "Yeah!" and flapping their wings. Swordfish almost asked what the arena was, but then realized that could raise suspicions, as all the dragonets seemed to know what it was. Swordfish pretended to be excited with the rest.

About an hour passed where Swordfish tried his hardest to speak as little as possible out of fear he would blow his cover. He wondered if Blizzard was doing the same back in Group A. Barley introduced him to his friend, Tornado the Skywing, the Skywing who had spoken to the group beforehand.

The hour of awkwardness for Swordfish ended when the sergeant returned. "The arena is happening in ten minutes." He said to the cheers of the dragonets. They began to get up and fly back towards the center of the old town. Swordfish was relieved to see Blizzard leave the Group A cave and shoot him a look. As the different groups of dragonets began to merge together, Swordfish left to go fly with Blizzard.

"This is weird." She said almost immediately. "Yeah I know." Swordfish agreed quietly. "Did… Camael give you a weird feeling? Like… something unnatural was going on there?" Blizzard froze, and then shook her head. "But… didn't Anthony tell you he was this giant monster dragon? Almost as big as Jade Mountain?" "Yeah." Swordfish said shaking his head. "It's like… the further we go into this… the weirder it gets." Swordfish looked up to see the sun almost right above his head. This day was only half way done.

. . .

Daniel Seilbrenner stood up in his chair, sending it back a little bit, making a scraping noise on the wooden floor. The sudden movement shook the glass of wine on his desk. "What?" Asked Henrik Solberg. "Black Star knows about the relics." Repeated the soldier. "Quick!" Yelled Solberg. "Send out dragonback forces to Paisland as fast as we can. We have dragons, Black Star doesn't!" The soldier nodded and ran back down the hallway she came from.

"I guess I was wrong." Seilbrenner said. "I guess our spy was a human." He paused. "General, do I have permission to go to Paisland as well?" Henrik stopped and gave Seilbrenner an odd look. "I suppose they will need as many high ranking soldiers as they can get." Solberg said. "If you are willing to go, you may go." Seilbrenner got up from his seat. "Thank you General." He thanked, and walked out the door and down the hall after the soldier. Solberg sighed and looked outside at the protesters. He saw a woman walking the other direction through the crowd. Solberg sighed again, and walked out of the room as well. The glass of wine that Nikita Petrov had poisoned sat on the desk untouched.


	39. Chapter 34: Pain

Rattlesnake looked up into the sky. The sun was high in the sky. The day was only half way done. Marie had overheard Black Star soldiers talking and heard they knew about the temple in Paisland. That means that they were headed Southwest to the Agorian Ocean, and then flying to Paisland. It had been Anthony's plan to go as fast as they could to Paisland and retrieve the relics before Black Star could. The day was unnaturally bright and clear for such an intense task.

Rattlesnake's thoughts wandered back to her days back in the Scorpion Den, helping the Outclaws. Helping dragons get back up in life. The biggest threat only being Vulture's enclave. Rattlesnake wished she could go back to that life. Before Jade Mountain. Before Savanna joined the Darkists. Before she knew about the demons, and the constant danger. Before she was stuck in the past. She almost felt like giving prayer a shot, now that she knew about the Moon Goddesses. She had no idea if the stories were even real, but here she was going to retrieve legendary objects from those exact stories anyway.

She recalled something her mother said to her a long time ago, after she told Rattlesnake the story of an animus dragon named Jerboa. Rattlesnake had asked; "Was that story real mom?" To which her mother replied; "Maybe. Most old stories like that one have been told and retold so many times, details get blurred. Some dragons might change it to make it a comforting story. Some might throw in things to make it more interesting, because some dragons think the best stories take you by surprise. But all of those stories started with something. They might be based off of something real, but not be real themselves." Rattlesnake turned and looked up at the three moons outside her window. She heard the claws of her mother begin to leave her room. "Goodnight Rattlesnake." Her mother said quietly.

Rattlesnake was suddenly consumed with the same old guilt she felt. Her mother's death was _her_ fault. She had dared stolen from The Enclave and her mother had paid the price. She had convinced herself that from that point on to be a better dragon. She would never do anything that could place others in danger again.

Rattlesnake decided she might as well try. _Luna, if you're really up there… Please let the others and I return home. Please bring back the old days. I would much rather have to face evil dragons than all of this. Demons, Darkists, Black Star, Camaelists. Please… bring me back._ She thought, closing her eyes. "You okay?" Michael asked, riding up on a horse next to her. "Yeah." She said quietly. "It's just… I can't believe any of this is happening." "Well, what part?" Michael asked, chuckling. "All of it." She said. Thinking all the way back to when Ostrich was killed. "Well, I guess all of this has been kind of insane for you, right?" Michael said, chuckling again.

Rattlesnake and the others had secretly revealed everything they knew to their new friends. From the other worlds, to the demons. Rattlesnake knew they were kind of skeptical of some of it, except for Anthony, who believed every word without a second thought. But he had seen some of it with his own two eyes.

Vulture was still struggling to get used to his eye patch. He kept reaching upwards to scratch at it, to which Marie would remind him not to. They had considered leaving Vulture behind so he could heal, but he insisted on going. Rattlesnake thought it was odd, considering how in the past Vulture had tried to avoid dangerous situations, and how persistent he had been about it was uncharacteristic. Rattlesnake tried to sneak it into a conversation and try to find out his reason, but he seemed to dodge everything.

So, Rattlesnake resigned herself to her own thoughts and the tiresome walk towards the Agorian Ocean. It was a long walk, and Rattlesnake envied the humans and their trains. She would've given her earring to be able to sit down in a seat and go to sleep as the locomotive simply brought her to her destination. Rattlesnake felt the mysterious earring Savanna had given her so long ago swing back and forth as she walked. She had wondered why an earring based off of the Earring of Sola had been on the ground of a street in the Scorpion Den. She knew there was no way it was purely coincidence someone had made an earring just like this, without there being any connection. But… that meant that there were dragons back in Pyrrhia that knew all of this was going on, or at least, happened.

Did this mean that even if she went back home, this stuff would still follow her? That her life could never return to normal? _I guess that's kind of already true._ She thought to herself. _I won't ever be able to forget any of this._ Maybe she could embrace it and just live here. Old Monarchy stops the Scorching, history is altered, and she can live in a world of human technology and dragons from tribes she had never even heard of. _What would I do? Would I go and become a full-on Old Monarchy soldier?_ Rattlesnake couldn't imagine herself ending the life of another dragon, or even a human. She had always liked to believe in the stories that scavengers were just as smart as dragons when she was young, and was glad she did. If she had ever killed a scavenger, Rattlesnake didn't know if she would be able to live it down after all of this.

 _Forget about the war, what would I do if Old Monarchy won? Would I go wander the world? Would I go live in Jeoul, the country with the highest dragon population? Would I stay here in Arnia? I mean, they speak our language._ Rattlesnake still found it funny that their language was actually an old human language from way before the Scorching. _Would I stay with my friends?_ Her mind flickered back to when she yelled at Swordfish in the forest. She quickly tried to think about other things. Like what had happened to Blizzard, Vine, and that Swordfish? Where was Polar? Did they all know about this?

. . .

"Vine, I want you to watch what Toucan does." Stone said. "I want you to watch how she does these things willingly." Vine had shrank back into a corner when Toucan had started screaming earlier, and she was still there. Stone had come back from whatever he had been doing, much to Toucan's relief. When Stone appeared again she had nearly thrown herself at him, which must have been odd, even for her, because Stone gave Vine a weird look that walked along suspicion and curiosity.

"Toucan, please go get my helmet." He said, and Toucan got up almost instantly, walked over to an old shelf and picked up a metallic helmet. She walked back towards Stone and held it out for him. Stone took it and placed it on his head, his thick Rockwing horns securing it in place. He waited a few seconds before saying "Toucan, please take my helmet off and place it back on the shelf." The Rainwing hastily took the helmet off the General's head and walked back to the shelf and put it back.

"You see how eager she is to do these things?" Stone asked Vine. Vine slightly nodded her head, still remaining in the corner of the room. "It is because she loves me. And I love her. I protect her, therefore she does these things for me as a form of repayment." Toucan nodded her head. "And soon Vine, you will learn this same love. It will be a revolution of the mind."

Vine did not see herself ever loving this, but then again, maybe Toucan had been the same way, and eventually she just gave in. Vine was repulsed at the idea of becoming a weird, mindless servant. The freedom she knew she must have lived in when she was in the Rainforest was a stark contrast to this.

"And the first step towards this, is the big one. You were an Old Monarchy soldier. I am a Camaelist general. I see that humanity is just a plague. One that destroys our forests and kills nature's creatures, especially us. This war is also a revolution. A dragon revolution. Yet you see humans as equals. You see them as being as capable and as intelligent and as dragon as us." Stone spoke calmly and without any hint of anger. "So, the first step of your revolution is to see just how superior we really are. You will see how weak humans really are. Strip them of their technology and they become nothing but another animal, like a cow or a horse."

Stone got up from where he was lying down and walked over to the bashed-in doorway. "Come with me Vine. Let me show you." He gestured with his wing out the door. Vine didn't move. She didn't answer. "…No." She eventually said quietly, her scales feeling even greener.

The Camaelist general stopped, the small smile on his face falling. He slowly walked up towards Vine, towering over her. Toucan's scales flickered to pale green before quickly turning back to blue, and she swiftly turned around and began to look at the wall, and began softly repeating something to herself in Emigan, one of the languages from this world. "Si no miras, no pasa nada…"

"Vine, please repeat that to me." Stone said, still calm, but with a hint of another emotion underneath. "…No." Vine said, louder this time. "I won't-."

She was cut off by Stone hitting her with his wing membrane so hard she fell. It felt like her entire left side had been cut by small, thin leaves and then dipped in the acidic juices of rainforest fruits. Vine screamed. It stung. Toucan began repeating her words louder, almost like she was trying to not hear the screams.

Stone stood over Vine as she lay curled on the ground, whimpering. "Don't worry too much, Vine." Stone said. "This is just the way I deter you from those kinds of dangerous thoughts. If you think like that enough, you won't be worthy of my kindness, and I'll let the others have their way. And their way involves torture until death for being a traitor to dragonkind." Vine felt tears slide down her face.

"Now, let's go to the arena." Stone said, dragging Vine to her feet. Vine was forced up and towards the door. Before Stone got her out the door, Vine shot a look back at Toucan, who had turned back around. Vine could have sworn she saw a flicker of another color. She couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw… red.

. . .

Swordfish sat in the crowds of the arena which had been made out of various bits and pieces of the old town. The crowd of dragonets cheered. The actual arena floor was the bare floor of an old house, and the stands were made out of pieces of buildings and houses. Swordfish found the stone building side he was sitting on rather uncomfortable. He and Blizzard had ended up sitting next to Barley and Tornado, which were brimming with excitement. Swordfish watched Blizzard look around the crowd intently. "What are you doing?" He asked her quietly. "Looking for Vine." She responded. "Luckily I've always been good at finding the right dragon in large crowds."

"Do you think they won't supply any humans this time?" Swordfish heard Tornado ask Barley. "Nah." Barley replied. "Giving the pests at least a fighting chance is what makes it good. If we were just watching humans die without there even being a fight, it would defeat the whole point." _So it's humans fighting dragons, not dragons fighting dragons, like in Scarlet's arena._ Swordfish realized. _Well, I mean I guess that makes sense. They need to drive home the point of dragons dominating humans._

"There." Blizzard said quietly to Swordfish, nudging his wing with hers and pointing across the arena to a platform. On it, sat Camael himself, still appearing to be a normal Seawing. To his left was General Wraith, who was glaring at the Rockwing sitting to Camael's right. The large Rockwing had Vine sitting next to him. She was wearing a strange new armband, and looked like she had been injured on her left side. She looked sad and depressed, her scales swirling between pale green and light blue. Fear and sadness.

"Hey Swordfish, you don't look very excited." Barley said to Swordfish suddenly. "Yeah! It looks like he's all eyes for Stone's new pet!" Tornado teased. "It's normally Terracotta's job to be ogling over his servant!" Barley laughed and then saw Swordfish and Blizzard's confused expressions. "Do you two really not know the joke? The whole Recruit Grade knew!" "Maybe they were from those other few bunkers. I don't recognize them." Tornado said. "Yeah." Swordfish blurted out, nervous they would find out he wasn't really a recruit. They needed to get Vine, and get out as fast as they could.

"Terracotta was a Mudwing who was completely in love with General Stone's servant. We all used to tease him about how if Stone found out he would lose his wings." Barley chuckled. Swordfish faked a laugh.

Swordfish noticed that Blizzard kept glancing back at Camael. She had a look on her face like she was trying to figure something out. Swordfish was going to ask her what was wrong when General Stone stood up, and flew out over the arena. Vine stayed back, Wraith giving her a menacing look.

"RECRUITS, VISITORS, AND DRAGONS OF ALL TRIBES!" Stone bellowed. "WELCOME TO THE TRIAL OF MANKIND!" The dragons cheered. "OUR COMBATANTS CONSIST OF CAPTURED HUMANS FROM BLACK STAR AND OLD MONARCHY, VERSUS CAPTURED OLD MONARCHY DRAGONS AND OTHER DRAGON PRISONERS! ALL HUMAN COMBATANTS WILL BE GIVEN A SPEAR, A SHIELD, AND A SET OF MOBILE SHOTGUNS, EACH WITH ONLY ONE SHOT!"

Swordfish watched as a gateway opened and a pair of humans wearing tattered military uniforms emerged. A woman from Old Monarchy, and a man from Black Star. Each wore the given weapons. "FOR THE HUMANS, SANDIP D'CRUZ OF BLACK STAR, AND VEER AALDENBERG OF OLD MONARCHY!" The humans were met with boos and growls. _Interesting._ Swordfish thought. _They put two enemies together._

"AND FOR THE DRAGONS, WE HAVE COBRA THE SANDWING OF OLD MONARCHY!" Another gate opened and a large Sandwing stepped out. The crowds cheered, but Cobra snarled up at the platform Camael, Wraith, and Vine were on. She yelled something in Kiboten at them. She turned to the two humans. She looked at the woman from Old Monarchy, Veer. Swordfish noticed Veer and Cobra were both blinking at each other.

Suddenly, Sandip, the Black Star soldier rushed forward, screaming with his spear brandishing towards Cobra. Cobra flapped her wings once and rose into the air, but she did not get her tail up quick enough. Sandip leaped forward, and sliced her poisonous barb off.

The crowds erupted into cheers. At first, Swordfish was confused, but then he realized that even though Cobra was a dragon, the Camaelists saw her as a traitor, and just as bad as one of the humans. The booing at the humans was just something they did. Probably a tradition.

Cobra shrieked. Blood was seeping out of the wound. She swiped downward towards Sandip with her claws, narrowly missing his head. Swordfish saw Veer watching the battle from the sidelines, holding her shield up. She was staring at Sandip.

"There's no way they can win." Blizzard said quietly. "Even if they're equipped with the weapons, they don't have a good environment to use them. There's no way Cobra will let her head get down low enough so that they can shoot her." Blizzard gritted her teeth. "This is how they execute their prisoners of war."

Sandip screamed and ran towards Cobra, who was still in the air, her blood dripping down onto the arena floor. He held his shield up and tossed the spear at Cobra's stomach. Cobra batted it away with her wing, and blasted fire in Sandip's direction. Sandip rolled out of the way, but the back of his tattered uniform caught on fire. He screamed and began rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames. Cobra pounced forward, gritting her teeth as her wound on the tip of her tail scraped against the wall of the arena. Sandip screamed and fired both of his shotguns at the oncoming Sandwing. _BANG! BANG!_

But Cobra wasn't close enough for the weapons to be effective at all. One of the shells slightly grazed her cheek, but she wiped away the blood. The audience cheered. Cobra pounced on top of Sandip and stuck her talons into the soldier's stomach. Blood spurted out of the wound. Sandip shrieked. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause. Swordfish was startled out of his repulsed trance by Barley whistling next to him. "YEAH! YOU SEE HER FORM!? THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Swordfish was still staring at the scene. It seemed like Cobra had tears forming in her eyes, and like Sandip was trying to say something. Stone hushed the crowd, which almost instantly fell silent.

"At least… I went out fighting… a monster." Sandip said. "I'm sorry." Cobra said with a thick accent. Both were barely audible, but the arena had gone nearly silent. Cobra removed her talons from the man's stomach and lightly touched his head, almost endearingly. The wound was open and Swordfish watched as Sandip's blood began to flow out of the wound, his eyes unblinking. Cobra stared at her bloodstained talons. "WHAT AN HONORABLE FIGHT, DESPITE BEING HUMAN!" Stone thundered and the crowd erupted into applause and cheers. Veer stood by, staring at the Black Star soldier. Cobra turned, wincing as her tail once again scraped along the stone. Cobra suddenly blasted fire in random directions. The crowd began cheering again, but stopped as Cobra continued to breathe fire. And it wasn't like she was trying to burn something. It was like she only cared as long as there was as much smoke as possible.

" _Are they going to try-?"_ Swordfish began to ask in a whisper to Blizzard, but she shushed him. They were going to try and escape together.

Swordfish watched the smoke as it got thicker and thicker, and then he couldn't see Veer anymore. Only the backside of Cobra. The arena was filled with the chattering of the audience. Suddenly, Cobra shot up and out of the arena with Veer riding her back. Cobra almost immediately took off flying. "OLD MONARCHY FOREVER!" Veer called back towards the arena. Guards took off after them as the crowd exploded into yelling. Some of the watching dragons even got up and flew after the escapees.

"Can you believe this?!" Tornado asked Barley. "Eh, don't worry." Barley replied, shaking out his wings. "There are so many guards around here, they'll never escape. Give it a few minutes, and they'll come back with their heads." Swordfish looked in the direction of the dragons, who had flown out of sight. He looked back towards Vine. Stone was back with her. Swordfish wondered what Tornado had meant when he said Vine was Stone's "new pet." Was she okay? What had she been through since Wraith took her?

Stone was looking off into the sky where the dragons had gone. Wraith was hastily apologizing to Camael, who looked bored. It was still surprising to Swordfish how average Camael was. He looked like any old Seawing who could be loitering on the corner back in Swordfish's hometown. Swordfish caught Blizzard looking at the leader's platform as well. " _Look at him."_ She whispered, ever so subtly gesturing to Wraith. " _Camael doesn't even care and Wraith's just apologizing and getting all agitated. He's pathetic." "Yeah well, it got him to the rank of general."_ Swordfish replied, still looking at Vine. _What was Stone doing to her? Had he hurt her? Where was he keeping her and how could he and Blizzard save her, and get out?_

Suddenly, the guards returned, holding the heads of Cobra and Veer. The audience clapped. Swordfish and Blizzard just stared at the ripped off heads as they were thrown to the ground at the arena center. Veer's made an especially disgusting noise as it landed. "See? What'd I tell you?" Barley said to Tornado.

The heads were cleared off the arena floor and no sooner, the next combatants were revealed, this time two Black Star soldiers versus a Camaelist criminal. It was over very quickly, the two soldiers hardly able to put up a fight against the Icewing. Swordfish watched with horror as the two men were quickly ripped to bloody shreds, the Icewing basking in the glory. Swordfish was eventually able to make eye contact with Vine during one of the fights. He saw gold shoot through her scales when they made eye contact, the color of happiness.

. . .

Vine stepped back into the room through the busted-in doorway, her mind still picturing the deaths of the humans she had seen in the arena. She tried to think about happier things, anything to take her mind off of the scenes of gory death. "Do you see now, Vine? Do you see how weak humans are? How unfit they are to dominate us?" Stone asked.

Stone had taken Vine back to the room they were staying in. Vine had begun to hate the room. She hadn't really felt this feeling before. She had been terrified before. Adnachiel, Darkists, Black Star, the other Camaelists like Wraith, but the emotion Vine was starting to feel was different. She had never really felt this loathing before. Vine noticed Stone and Toucan staring at her, and she looked down to see she had clouds of red, tinted with black, billowing up her scales. The colors of anger and hatred.

"Vine? Are you okay?" Stone asked, sounding genuinely concerned. "Those are not peace colors." Toucan said to Stone. "Those are the colors of anger and hatred." Stone whirled around to face Vine again. "What is it Vine? Anger towards what? Me? Camaelism?" Stone paused. "Humans?"

Vine took a silent, yet deep breath, calming her scales to match Toucan's peaceful blue calm. She looked up into Stone's eyes. He looked legitimately concerned for her. His old scales crinkled around the eyes like someone who had seen more than he would have liked. Vine put on a fake smile. "It was nothing, Stone." She said, careful to address him by the name he said he preferred. "I just realized how cruel and weak humans really are." Stone's face split into a smile. He lightly put a claw on Vine's face endearingly. He held it there for a second before letting it slip away. " _Revolution."_ He whispered.

Toucan stared at the scene unfolding in front of her. Vine looked at Toucan and saw more red begin to appear on her scales, ever so lightly appearing before disappearing again. _Three moons is Toucan jealous?_ Vine wondered. _It doesn't matter._ She told herself. _You just need to keep up the act until you can get out._

Vine went back to figuring out how to escape. Should she just wait for Swordfish and Blizzard to come? _No! Stop doing that you lazy Rainwing!_ Vine berated herself. _You can't just wait for other dragons to do everything for you every time! You have to do this yourself!_ She went back to examining the ceiling. _But out there, are just more Camaelists. They'll see my armband and kill me._ Vine tugged at the metal armband, tight around her arm.

If she could somehow get the armband off of her, she could just pass as a recruit. The only trouble would be getting away without Stone chasing after her. Or Toucan, for that matter. She just had to wait for a moment she was alone, and then she could…

 _No, Stone has the keys to the armband._ Vine picked at the lock on the armband. _Come on! There's got to be some way!_ But Vine knew the only way she could get the armband off would be to unlock it. She had to get the key. _But how? How would I do that without Stone noticing, and wouldn't he see me leave?_ Stone was sitting on the other end of the room, reading a book. Toucan was sitting on the floor nearby, playing with the fringe of a rug.

Suddenly, Vine's mind flickered back to a moment. One of the other worlds. The Skywing guard, about to kill Swordfish. No way out. There was no escape for him, and he would have died if Adnachiel hadn't killed the guard. No way out unless Vine acted.

 _What if… sometimes… peace isn't an option? What if sometimes… if you don't fight, you lose? What if… you can't apply rainforest logic to most situations beyond the forest itself? What if sometimes… you must strike first?_

Vine looked back at Stone, and then at Toucan. Both were distracted. She needed to act fast, or this chance may not appear again. She quietly got up and walked over to a wall of the room covered in various items. Most looked like trophies taken from human soldiers. Old Monarchy helmets and Black Star guns. There were various dragon helmets and even what looked like the horns of a Nightwing sitting on a shelf though too.

In the middle of the wall was a life-size dragon's head made of metal, in its mouth, a sword. Vine examined the dragon. It seemed it was made entirely out of copper. Vine continued to the other shelf, which yielded even less useful results. It had small paintings and various books. Vine recognized the Holy Words, the prophet Hamza's book. There was nothing here that could help her.

Vine looked back to the copper dragon. The sword was definitely big enough. Why a dragon would even need a sword like this to begin with, Vine had no idea. She continued looking at the dragon's head. If she could pry it loose, it would work.

She grabbed the handle and tugged. The sword didn't move. She tried pulling the other way, and still, nothing. She tried opening the mouth of the head wider, nothing happened. She looked back at Stone. He was still reading his book.

 _Come on! What can I use? What can I do?_ Vine thought to herself, quietly stamping her foot on the ground. She went back to examining the sword. She noticed that the lower jaw of the dragon wasn't actually attached to the rest of the head. Vine bent her head down and looked closer at the jaw. It was attached, but by a piece of wood that was keeping it in place.

Vine took a deep breath. She put one talon on the lower jaw and moved her head in closer to the wood. She couldn't mess this up. She had to be precise.

Vine opened her mouth wide and spat the tiniest bit of venom at the wood. The wood began to dissolve, and she caught the falling lower jaw with her talon. It was a lot heavier than she thought. She managed to hold it up though and maneuvered herself to the other side of the dragon. She did the same to that piece of wood, completely dislodging the jaw. The sword began to fall, and Vine managed to catch it with her other talon, now standing on her hind legs, using her tail for balance.

She quietly placed the jaw on the ground, making only the tiniest _thud._ She grasped the sword with both of her front talons. She took a deep breath. Vine was scared. She had never truly hurt someone before, and it terrified her. She turned and looked at Stone. It would be hard to hurt him with his armored scales. She would have to strike at a weak spot. _But hurting a weak spot can end in death!_ Vine thought. But she remembered the Skywing soldier. Adnachiel threatening Swordfish in the creepy version of Possibility. The Darkists about to kill her, Swordfish, and Vulture. How Commander Swamp had taken out the tanks in Sainsbury. Cobra killing Sandip in the arena. Sometimes, you had to hurt. Sometimes, peace was not an option.

Vine took another deep breath, turning her scales to blue again. She had no idea what they had been before. She quietly walked up behind Stone. He was still reading the book. She brought the sword upwards. She was going to strike at the weak spot on the tail. There was a good chance Stone was about to die.

Vine hesitated. She imagined Toucan's grief. She imagined Stone's friends, crying for their friend. But she also imagined life under his "love." She imagined becoming like Toucan, and she knew what she had to do.

"STONE! BEHIND YOU!" Toucan suddenly shrieked. Vine was so surprised, she swung the sword downward. Stone stood up and whirled around. The sword hit his back and made a small gash, but the Rockwing hardly flinched. He reached outward with one massive talon and grabbed Vine's. He threw her to the ground and then pinned her down with one of his large back claws.

"Do you _want_ to be tortured by Wraith!?" Stone bellowed. He slapped Vine with his wing again. She screamed. "Or are you just _blind_ to my love!?" He cried and sliced downward over Vine's eye with his claw.

Vine felt a searing pain wash over her eye. She couldn't see. She screamed again, feeling the blood from her eye begin to drip down her face. "I see now that those black scales weren't for humanity, they were for _me._ " He dripped. "I guess you'll have to learn to love me a bit more violently."

Vine could hardly see through her one working eye, which was flowing with tears, but she could see Toucan standing behind Stone, more and more red appearing. Her face was twitching. Something seemed to be happening to her eyes. She seemed to be shaking.

"I don't want to be doing this." Stone growled. "But I will if I have to. I don't particularly _enjoy_ killing humans, but I know that it must be done. Same with this. If you do not-." Stone was cut off. He stopped speaking.

Behind him, Toucan's scales had changed completely to red. Her eyes looked normal. She opened her mouth wide, like a snake, and spat venom right at Stone's neck.

Stone began screaming and yelling. He collapsed off Vine, who got up and stared at the horrific scene in front of her. The venom began to eat away at Stone's neck and throat. The screaming became more gargled and weak as his vocal cords were severed. His thick scales, disintegrating. Stone stared up at Toucan, a look of pure hurt and betrayal in his eyes before they stopped. The venom ate away at his neck until a large chunk was burned off, blackened and fizzing.

Vine looked up at Toucan, who stared at the dead body. Her scales beginning to fade back to blue. "Toucan…" Vine croaked. "Why did you wait until now to do that?" Toucan said nothing. She was still staring at the body.

"Come on." Vine said, tears still falling down her face along with the blood from her eye. She looked through the bag Stone had on him, part of the strap had been burned off. She found a metal ring with two keys on them. The first one she tried fit into the lock on her armband, and it fell off. It hit the ground with a _CLANK!_

Vine held up the keys for Toucan. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'm glad you're out of that weird trance." But Toucan didn't move. She kept staring at the body. Then she started screaming.

"I KILLED STONE! I KILLED STONE! I KILLED STONE! HE'S GONE GONE GONE GONE GONE GONE…" She screeched at the top of her lungs. She began crying while screaming. Then, she fell to the ground, convulsing and her mouth frothing. Her scales began turning almost every color Vine knew as she bucked her head back and forth. Vine knew she had to get out before soldiers heard the chaos and screaming.

Vine turned the colors of her surroundings and began running through the door and down the hallways. She heard the screaming pick up again, and this time, the yelling of soldiers. Vine's eye hurt like nothing she had felt before, except maybe… that time… in the room… with the visitors. The memory was blurry.

The screaming and yelling continued until the screaming stopped. It didn't start again. Vine said a silent thank you to Toucan's spirit.

. . .

Swordfish sat in the barracks again, listening to a Nightwing named Nightwatcher tell a story about how his dad's friend battled an entire squadron of Black Star soldiers alone. "That's a load of camel dung." Said a Sandwing.

Swordfish looked outside the cave, wondering how he was going to save Vine. He couldn't think of anything. He and Blizzard were almost completely in the dark with this. They knew absolutely nothing.

Swordfish was snapped out of his thoughts by the sergeant coming by, Groups A and B trailing behind. With the sergeant was a graceful-looking Seawing. Her eyes scanned over the crowd of dragonets. "Camael himself has ordered all available soldiers to attack Paisland." Said the sergeant. Swordfish had found Blizzard in the crowd and they shared a look of alarm when the order was said.

"You mean, like, the Dieautish colony?" Asked Tornado. "Yes." Answered the Seawing. "Wow." Barley said under his breath. "This must be important if Commander Seagull came all the way out here just to tell us recruits."

Swordfish just stared into the sky again. _Camael knew. The Camaelists were going to get the relics first. Old Monarchy isn't the only ones who know. Does Black Star know too?_ Swordfish was still wondering, shaking lightly, as the recruits filed out of the cave and out into the afternoon sky. The day still wasn't over yet, and they had a long flight ahead.

. . .

Cassriel had been counting down the days until that fateful day occurred. The day he had been so close, only to see it crumble in front of him. Tomorrow was the day.

He was sitting alone in his home in Hell, the residence of the Demons. It was essentially a large platform, floating in the Void, where the Demons could rest, and keep personal things. It had the tower from which the King ruled in the center. Cassriel preferred to keep his home similar to the way they had things on Earth, back when he spent a few years there.

Cassriel knew that Earth, or at least, a version like it, was where Swordfish and Vine were. But he had no way to get there. Adnachiel seemed to have vanished, so he couldn't ask her if she knew any way to get there. That is, if she even knew, she was a new demon, and most likely wouldn't know everything. He could only hope that things hadn't changed. He could only hope that Swordfish and Vine would return soon, then they would die, and he could continue with his work.

Cassriel heard a knock at his door. He opened it up to see Stygal, demon of death, standing there. Stygal was in his human form, a middle-aged man with sunglasses on top of his head, and casual clothes. He had a blue and gold can of beer in his hand. "I see you're trying to pull off the 'socks and sandals' look." Cassriel said, pointing downward to Stygal's choice of footwear.

Stygal smiled. "You're one to talk. I heard from Abyss you took on a nice 'shadow-creature' form trying to scare some dragonet." He said in a thick Australian accent. Cassriel cringed. "Damn him. Doesn't he know when to shut his mouth?"

Cassriel took on one of the scariest forms he could think of when encountering Swordfish. His goal was to try and scare him away from ever digging any deeper, but it didn't seem to have worked. Not that his classic demon form wasn't a scary enough sight, but he felt the kind of "unknown darkness" thing would have a better effect.

Stygal came in and Cassriel shut the door behind him. "So yeah, I actually heard all about that." Stygal said. "You really screwed that one up, didn't you mate?" "How was I supposed to predict all of that would happen?" Cassriel said, defending himself. "First, that Rainwing gets in somehow, along with Anthony Conwell, next, Swordfish screws up the order of the world well enough that the whole thing comes undone! Cedar stabs Rattlesnake! All of the work I had put into that world, gone!"

"Well, actually." Stygal said. "I'm here just about that. I just was speaking with the king and Nestorats." Cassriel looked up at Stygal. "What do you two have to do with this?" He asked. "Well." Stygal answered. "The King has developed 'plan B.'"

 **Sorry for the delay. No internet for a long while. Prepare for chapters to resume normal pacing and schedule.**


	40. Chapter 35: Cross

**Fourteen years ago.**

Hana Kang stepped out of her "anxiety room." She had ran into it when the moon started to glow. She had been reading a book by the candlelight when she began to hear screaming. She looked outside to see only a bit of the moon. It was glowing. She felt something unnatural wash over her. Like an anxiety attack but worse. She felt cold, and her back began to hurt. She instinctively ran into her "anxiety room." A closet with no windows, and one door, which had a lock on it.

Hana sat in the dark room alone. She heard the screaming continue. Her house began to shake. She was frozen in fear. She was worried about her father, mother, and brother, Hyun-Ki. But she couldn't move. The screaming was getting louder. It sounded like the whole city was let"ting out a cry. Her house shook again, and this time she felt an enormous crash. So loud it shook the entire house. Hana had to stop herself from falling off the chair.

The screaming continued, but another sound started appearing. Something inhuman. A roar that sounded like an animal. The shaking continued.

Hana began to cry. She had no idea what was going on, and her anxiety only kept getting worse. Something was coming. Coming for her. There was nowhere safe anymore. The world was ending. Was this it? The rapture? Was she going to live? Would her family live?

The screaming was slowly but surely replaced entirely by the roars. Hana heard something flap outside her window. The shaking continued, but the screaming stopped. And then slowly… the shaking stopped too. The animal roaring continued.

Hana waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. She steeled herself and opened the door to the "anxiety room." Her room still looked the same. The candle was still lit. The book she was reading was still face down on the ground where she dropped it. She looked out the window. The moon had stopped glowing.

Suddenly, something large flew by her window. Hana fell backward in surprise, bumping into the wall behind her. _What the hell was that?_ Another roar sounded, this time it was closer.

Hana ran to the staircase downstairs, but she stopped when she saw her brother's room. A massive hole was in it. His bed was gone, and there were scorch marks all around the room. Hyun-Ki was nowhere to be seen.

"HYUN-KI!?" Hana called out. No response. She ran down the stairs to try and find her parents. All she found was that the downstairs rooms were the same situation. Massive holes and scorch marks. Her mother and father were nowhere to be seen. Another roar sounded.

Hana ran to the door and opened it. Outside was a scene out of Hana's nightmares. Giant creatures with wings and tails were flying around, roaring. Hana couldn't see a single person. Only the… _Dragons._ Hana realized. _Dragons were here._

Where had they come from? Had they killed everybody? What happened? Hana ran back into her house. " _This is crazy this is crazy this is crazy…"_ She muttered. She ran up to her parent's room and threw open a drawer. She grabbed the rifle her father owned and loaded it. Another nearby roar sounded, this time, coming from her brother's room.

Hana crept towards the room, and waited outside the door. She heard movement from inside the room. "Hyun-Ki?" She called out. The room fell silent. Hana stepped into the doorway and jumped backward when she saw the orange dragon peering into the room through the massive hole. It had slightly curved horns and large wings. Hana aimed the gun and was about to fire when she noticed that the dragon was staring at her. It stayed in the air, examining the creature in front of it.

"C-can you talk?" Hana asked, her voice trembling. "Can y-you speak Jeoul?" The dragon kept staring at her. Hana looked into its eyes. They looked so familiar. Like she knew this thing, or had seen it before. She began racking her brain, wondering where she could have possibly seen it before. It remained staring. "D-do you know where Hyun-Ki is?" Hana asked it.

The dragon suddenly began roaring loudly, and snapping at Hana. She fired the gun at its head, but missed. The recoil sent her backwards a bit. She had never fired a gun before.

The dragon kept snapping, but couldn't reach Hana. Hana was frozen in fear. The orange dragon stopped roaring, and resumed just staring at her. It didn't do anything. Hana took a step towards it.

The dragon blasted fire towards Hana. She was engulfed in it. She fell to the ground, the flames burning away everything around her, including her. She felt her skin burning, her lungs began to burn. Her mouth felt like it was gone. The dragon snapped towards her again, and this time, caught her feet in between its teeth.

Hana was dragged out, still burning. The dragon flapped his wings and put out the flames, and then bent down with its giant reptilian face and took a bite.

. . .

"Swordfish. Hey! Swordfish!"

Swordfish looked up at Barley. He had started to tire and was beginning to dip downward in the sky. It was night now, and the Camaelists had been flying since Camael gave the order to attack Paisland. Swordfish hadn't gone through the military training that the others had, so he was beginning to falter earlier than them.

"Are you okay?" Barley asked. "Yeah… I'm fine." Swordfish said, bringing himself up to Barley's height. "I'm just… tired that's all." Swordfish found it interesting how Barley and some of the other Camaelists appeared as nice dragons. Maybe they were, they just believed humanity needed to be destroyed. Maybe some dragons, like Barley, could switch sides.

 _No. That's wishful thinking._ Swordfish told himself. _You can't go around thinking like that. The world isn't as good and full of hope like the stories and scrolls say it is._

Suddenly, a Grasswing flew ahead to the front of the troops. "THERE'S AN INJURED DRAGONET!" She yelled. Some dragons who looked like medics followed the Grasswing towards the back of the large group of dragons. Swordfish watched the medics go to the back, and then resumed his tiresome flying.

Swordfish was beginning to wonder how he and Blizzard were going to get out of this situation, when Blizzard came flying up to him. " _Swordfish._ " She whispered. " _It's Vine. She's here."_ Swordfish looked at Blizzard. "Where?" He asked urgently. "She's the injured dragonet." Blizzard responded.

Swordfish followed Blizzard back to the dragonet the medics were helping. It was Vine. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, covering her eye. The spot where her eye had been was bloodstained. She saw Swordfish and Blizzard and gave a weak smile.

"Alright Vine, where did you come from?" One of the medics asked. "I… was attacked by a human… I managed to kill her but she took… out my… eye." Vine said in a trembling voice. "Okay, maybe someone should escort you back." Said the Icewing medic. "No!" Vine said loudly. "I mean… uh… I want to see Paisland. I've always wanted to go." Swordfish was impressed at Vine's ability to lie like this.

"Well… if you really want to go we can give you some Parashaki." Said the Icewing. "What's that?" Vine asked weakly. "A stimulant of sorts. Found in the more southern countries. It was originally used to cure poisoned plants." The medic reached into her bag and withdrew a bottle of green liquid. "Hey Fateweaver, could you heat up this Parashaki?" Asked the Icewing to a nearby Nightwing. Fateweaver flew down and grabbed a branch off of a nearby tree. He came back up and set the end of the branch on fire, and stuck it inside the bottle of Parashaki. The liquid began bubbling and the Icewing put it underneath Vine's face.

The bottle released a green gas that enveloped Vine's face. She began coughing. "It should relieve the pain as well as give you a 'high' that will allow you to get to Paisland." Said the Icewing. "I don't know why you want to go there so badly, it's really nothing special. I don't know why Camael is ordering such a large-scale attack."

Swordfish, Blizzard, and Vine eventually began flying together, Vine becoming hyperactive as the Parashaki did its work. She flew in loops and rambled sometimes. From her drugged ramblings, Swordfish was able to piece together what happened to her with General Stone.

"So… you tried to kill him?" Blizzard asked Vine quietly. "On purpose?" "Yes." Vine replied, her voice shaking. "There was no other way." Swordfish thought back to the Vine he found dying in the Void. The same Vine who couldn't even get herself to attack the Skywing soldier. "Did you… use venom?" Swordfish asked.

Vine looked at Swordfish. "No. I will never use that on a living creature." She said. Swordfish noticed that her eyes had a greenish tint to them, probably from the Parashaki.

The moon overhead shone down on the army of dragons flying to Paisland. It hit Swordfish how much had happened, how much Swordfish's life had changed. Did he seem different? Had he changed like Vine had? Swordfish didn't think he had. Had this world done something to Vine? Had living in a war torn world for two months really make her change so much?

Suddenly, screams and roars pierced through the night. Swordfish turned and looked at the left side of the army and saw that dragons had begun attacking the Camaelists. _Old Monarchy_. Swordfish realized. The Camaelists turned and began attacking their attackers.

The three dragonets remained where they were as the Old Monarchy soldiers began attacking. "They won't know we're not really Camaelists." Swordfish said quietly. "They might try to kill us." "Do we help Old Monarchy?" Vine asked. "They're outnumbered." "No." Blizzard said. "This is our chance to slip away and get to Paisland first. But we need to go. Now." The dragonets began flying again, continuing the direction they had been going in. Swordfish couldn't help but imagining Barley getting killed by Old Monarchy.

The dragonets continued flying away, but Swordfish looked back one last time and saw Camael, not participating in the battle. He remained in the sky, watching the whole thing in front of him. The Seawing suddenly snapped his head around and made eye contact with Swordfish. Swordfish felt an uneasy feeling wash over him again.

The battle raged on, but Camael remained staring at the dragonets, before eventually turning back around. Swordfish was still feeling the chills long after Camael turned back around. Something about him reminded Swordfish of the unnatural feeling of the Void, and when he faced Adnachiel. "Hey, does Camael… make you feel weird?" Swordfish asked the other two. "Yes." They said in unison. "I don't know what it is, but he like makes me feel scared. Like, more than I would normally be." Vine said. "Like, Stone and Wraith appeared scarier than him. They did scarier things. But Camael just makes me feel…" "Like you're just going to crumple and die." Blizzard finished. Vine nodded. Swordfish could see pale green begin to flutter through her scales. "Like it's unhealthy to look at him." Blizzard said.

Swordfish revisited the image of Camael that Anthony painted. _What is going on here? Can Camael… change forms? How could he do that?_ Swordfish suddenly remembered something with a jolt. That time Abyss had visited Swordfish when he came to this world. When he told Swordfish he had to take the chance. Abyss had appeared as… a dragon. A Seawing that looked like Swordfish's father. Just like Camael. Abyss had shapeshifted back into his… regular form later. _Was that something… all demons could do?_

"What did Camael look like to you two?" Swordfish asked. "What do you mean?" Vine asked. "Like, what tribe was he from?" Swordfish clarified. "Icewing." Blizzard said. "What are you talking about? He was a Rockwing. He looked like Stone. I kept getting the two confused." Vine said. "I thought he was a Seawing." Swordfish said slowly. "He… looked like my father."

Swordfish looked Blizzard in the eyes. "Did he look like anyone you know?" Swordfish asked, his panic rising. He had struck an awful thought. Blizzard paused for a moment, like she was struggling to say the next word. "He… almost looked… like Frost." She finally said.

"So… he appeared as different dragons entirely to all of us?" Vine asked. _He took the form of somebody we fear._ Swordfish realized. "Maybe… it's something animus enchanted?" Blizzard theorized. "We haven't come across a single animus or enchanted object once." Swordfish said. "It seems… like they don't even exist yet."

"So what's going on?" Vine asked. Swordfish rested upon his theory. It would be bad. It would be really, really bad if it were true. "What if…" Swordfish said slowly. "Camael… is a demon?"

Vine and Blizzard fell silent. Swordfish knew why. If this was true, that would mean the Camaelists were being led by a demon. A demon seemingly bent on exterminating humans. _But why? What would he have to gain from that?_

"But… why?" Vine asked after more silence, reflecting Swordfish's own thoughts. "Why would he be doing that?" "I don't know… but Abyss could shapeshift. He did when he visited me once." Swordfish said. "So… you think other demons can do the same?" Blizzard asked, a worried look in her eyes. "I don't know. But… I don't have any other explanation as to why he appeared as different dragons to each of us." Swordfish said.

"Should we tell someone like Seilbrenner?" Vine asked. "There's a chance he won't believe us." Blizzard said quickly. "I think only Anthony is going to believe us."

"So what do we do?" Vine asked. "We can't just keep something like this to ourselves." "Well, what else are we going to do? It's not like many other dragons or people are aware of what's going on. We're completely alone in knowing about the demons." Swordfish said.

"Why don't we focus on what's ahead?" Blizzard said. "We can't do anything with that right now. We need to get to Paisland first." Vine nodded. Swordfish stared up into the night sky, and at the one singular moon of this world.

. . .

Michael stared at the sunrise in the distance. They had crossed into Dieautel a while ago, and the Dieautish coastline was nearing. Once they got to the fishing villages, they could take a boat to Paisland. Vulture and Rattlesnake could fly while the boat brought Michael, Anthony, and Marie to the island.

Michael couldn't really believe it. He might be the one to retrieve the Relics of Hamza. Something that had been sought by empires, kingdoms, and men and women throughout time, and he, Michael Bridger, might be one of the ones who finds them.

As the group entered the seacoast village, Michael began noticing more men and women on horses. More dragons flying above the trees. More Old Monarchy troops. "Hey!" He said to the others, but they had already noticed the reinforcements. "Word must have gotten out that Black Star knows." Marie said. Vulture exhaled loudly in relief. "I was worried we were going to have to go get them all alone." He said. "Me too." Anthony said quietly.

The people who lived in the houses were groggily coming out of their houses to see what was going on. Michael saw children looking out their windows, pointing at the entourage of soldiers. A basset hound came out of an alley to greet the soldiers. Michael saw Rattlesnake bend down to smile at the dog, which wagged its tail.

"Why are dogs afraid of other large animals, but not of us?" Vulture asked. "We should be the most terrifying thing of all." "We don't really know." Anthony replied. "For as long as dragons have been around, dogs have treated them like humans. You know, until they meet one that isn't friendly."

The soldiers got to the docks. A pair of fishermen were on their boat, about to set out. They stopped and stared at the mass of soldiers marching through their town. "L'enfer?" One asked, bewildered.

The soldiers all stopped as a group of commanders and other leaders stepped ahead of them. Michael was able to pick out Seilbrenner in the group, his blonde hair blowing backward in the sea breeze. He also recognized Asha Wirnman of the Committee of Public Safety, the woman who had tried to execute the dragonets back when everyone thought they were Camaelists. Michael caught Vulture looking at Asha with disdain.

A man stepped forward, the symbols on his uniform marking him as another commander. "For those of you who do not know me, I am a commander from the Dieautish navy. My name is Jacob Meltzer. You are going to go on dragonback to Paisland, enter the temple Pancho Urbina left directions to, split into teams, find the Relics of Hamza, collect them, and bring them to us. They will then be used to win this war."

The crowd of Old Monarchy soldiers exploded into noise. The sounds of disbelief, shock, excitement, anxiety, joy, everything. Michael had forgotten that the relics hadn't been public information.

Michael couldn't join in with the other soldiers. Polar, Vine, Swordfish, Blizzard, and the others who had gone on patrol yesterday morning weren't here, and he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to them. He hadn't seen them since two nights ago. Michael wasn't normally a worrier, but he didn't have such a good feeling about this. Like… something awful had happened.

"We have received reports of Black Star soldiers coming here soon. Black Star naval ships have been seen sailing towards the island. We are limited on time to get the relics." Commander Meltzer said, showing no anxiety in his voice. "Split into groups, and seek them out. Once you have collected all three, return to command as fast as you can. We will end the fighting. We will force Camael and Axton Lloyd into a form of surrender."

There was the electricity of excitement and worry between the soldiers as the humans climbed onto dragon's backs. Michael saw Marie run over towards a Seawing. It was Azure, Gabi's friend. The two hadn't seen each other since Gabi's death.

Suddenly, screams sounded from some of the civilians. The crowd turned in the direction of the screams and saw three dragonets flying towards the crowd. "THEY DON'T HAVE ARMBANDS! CAMAELISTS!" Someone yelled, but Michael recognized the three. "STOP!" He yelled. "THEY'RE ON OUR SIDE!" But dragonback soldiers quickly flew up to the dragonets, guns pointed and teeth bared.

The three didn't put up a fight, and were brought to command by the soldiers. "What are you three doing here?" Seilbrenner asked surprised. "The Camaelists are coming." Swordfish replied to him. "We escaped from them to get here. They know."

Commander Meltzer turned and faced the crowd almost instantly. "THE CAMAELISTS ARE COMING, AS WELL AS BLACK STAR! ALL SQUADRONS, HEAD TO PAISLAND NOW!" The soldiers let out the Old Monarchy battle cry. The sound echoed through the small village as the humans climbed onto the backs of dragons, and set off toward the sleepy island in the distance.

Michael couldn't pay attention though, he could only think about how Polar hadn't come with them, and an awful thought dawned upon him.

. . .

Swordfish could only listen as Blizzard explained to Michael and the others that Polar had been killed. Swordfish didn't know how he expected Polar's old friends to react. He had foreseen that Marie might cry, but she didn't. She turned and fell silent, facing Paisland as the Old Monarchy forces drew closer. Instead, Michael was the one to cry. It wasn't intense sobbing, but Swordfish saw tears trickle down his face. "When I went into the military, Polar was the first one to talk to me. I hadn't really ever talked to a dragon before. But she was friendly. She helped me get to my feet and stand against the Camaelists. She was strong, physically, but most importantly, mentally. She helped make me the man I am today." He said, a few breaks in his voice.

Anthony silently cried on Rattlesnake's back. Swordfish could tell she wanted to comfort her friend, but she couldn't at the moment.

"Wraith." Michael suddenly said, clenching his fist. "That traitor. I'll make him pay. I'll kill him. It's the least I can do." Swordfish remembered the Aniwing Camaelist general, how he was always surrounded by soldiers and his terrifying preaching about the end of humanity, and dragons assuming control. Would killing him make a difference? Just how much authority did Wraith have?

As the dragons landed on Paisland, the fog was starting to dissipate, and the shapes of ships in the distance could be seen. Black Star was coming. "We will have to enter Chene Mountain, and then split up within the tunnels inside." Seilbrenner announced to the soldiers. "Follow us to get to the mountain, but we need to move fast."

When the soldiers arrived at the mountain, they were led down to a large cave opening in the side of the mountain. It looked like any old cave, but there was a small stone plaque into the cave wall just inside of it. The plaque read, "TEMPLVM PROPHETAE." "What language is that?" Vine asked Marie. "Looks like old Valkskyan." Marie said.

Swordfish took a look up at the mountain, and then back up at the sky. This world was going to change. Would it be for the better? Would gathering these relics save humanity from extinction? Swordfish didn't know.

The soldiers began breaking up into groups. The tunnels were large enough to fit even some of the bigger dragons, so nobody would be left behind thankfully. Swordfish met up with the other dragonets, Anthony, Marie, Michael, and Azure. "So… shall we go in?" Azure asked. The other soldiers were breaking up into groups and heading into the tunnel. "I guess so." Rattlesnake said.

The tunnels were old and in disrepair. It seemed like nobody had stepped foot in there for hundreds of years. The passages snaked and spun around, leaving Swordfish confused most of the time. "What do you think of this plan?" Vulture suddenly asked the group. "Do you think that getting these relics is really a good idea? What if they're stolen? What would we do then?" There was silence as they kept going down the tunnel, the three torches they had made beforehand being their only light.

"There's no other way." Anthony said quietly. "If we don't take this chance… sooner or later… Old Monarchy will crumble. At the rate things are going… soon we won't be a match for the Camaelists or Black Star. The side of peace will be destroyed, and all that will exist is hate." Silence washed over the group like a wave at the ocean crashing over a couple small rocks. Swordfish noticed Rattlesnake trembling lightly. "A world without peace doesn't even sound like a world worth living in." She said suddenly.

The tunnels kept going. Some pathways were collapsed in, and Swordfish worried that they wouldn't even be able to get to the relics because they would be blocked off. A couple times they ran into some other groups, but for the most part, the group walked alone.

Swordfish wondered who made the tunnels. Who put the relics down here? And why? Why did these tunnels twist and turn, with no reason to it? Was it supposed to be like a maze? To try and hide the relics?

Suddenly, Blizzard raised her head, alarmed. "I hear shouting." She said. The group stopped walking and listened. Nearby, multiple voices could be heard yelling. The humans and dragons picked up speed and began running towards the sound. They took a left, and then a right, and at the end of that tunnel… "Look! A cavern!" Marie said with excitement. They ran towards it.

The tunnel opened into a large cavern. Torches all along the walls of it were lit. There was a large wooden cross in the middle of a stone circle on the ground, which had runes carved into it. There was a group of six people, and two dragons sitting inside of the cavern. They looked up to the tunnel entrance that Swordfish was in, and nodded. "We found them." Said one of the soldiers. "But… not all of them are here." Swordfish looked to the other side of the cavern and saw Commander Seilbrenner standing over a carved stone block, which on it lay two objects.

The dragons helped Anthony, Michael, and Marie down to the floor, and they rushed over to the Commander. "There they are." Seilbrenner said, still awestruck.

Swordfish gazed upon the simple Dagger of Luna, runes carved into its handle, the hollowed blade. Just like Rainfall's sketch. Next to it sat the Necklace of Eclis. It looked just the same as the very necklace Savanna had worn around his neck every day. The objects imbued with divine power from above. Hamza's relics. "But where's…" Vine began.

"The Earring of Sola is missing." Seilbrenner said quietly. "Without it, we won't be able to gain the power of Hamza. We have to find it, or all of this will be for nothing."

Swordfish turned around and stared at the enormous wooden cross. Hamza had been killed when the Valkskyan Empire nailed him to a cross in an ancient public execution method call crucifying.

"What do we do?" Asked Azure. "Without the earring… we can't contact the goddesses." "I'm not sure." Anthony said. "What if Black Star or Camaelists already have it?" "Then, to put it lightly," Said one of the other soldiers. "We're screwed." Rattlesnake sighed.

Seilbrenner grabbed the necklace and dagger. "Well, we're going to have to take these." He said, and then began pacing back and forth. He walked toward the cross in the middle of the ring of runes, when the objects began to twitch in his hands. "Eh?" He said in surprise.

He dropped the dagger, and it flew up, like a giant invisible claw was grabbing it and yanking it towards the cross. The dagger began to revolve around the cross, right underneath where the two pieces of wood met. Seilbrenner let go of the necklace, and it did the same, revolving around the cross.

"Amazing." Said one of the other soldiers. "This ring. It's a ritual ring. Someone used this place to try and gain the power of Hamza." "The Daughters of Amraheim!" Marie exclaimed. "This is where they tried to contact the goddesses!" Swordfish recalled the story of the group of women who set out to find the relics, but were corrupted by their power.

Suddenly, Vulture's head shot up, he looked at the cross, and then at Rattlesnake. "Rattlesnake, go stand in the ring." He said. "Why?" She asked nervously. "Just do it!" He pleaded. Rattlesnake gave him a look and then stepped into the ring, maneuvering her barbed tail to make sure she didn't hit any of the other soldiers with it.

"Ow!" She exclaimed almost instantly. "What is it?" Michael asked, his tears from earlier dried up. "It's my…" She began, and then turned and looked at Vulture with a look of amazement. "You don't think…" "I do. And it looks like I'm right." Vulture said, his one eye staring at Rattlesnake's head intensely.

Rattlesnake carefully removed the earring Savanna had given her so long ago. It was shaking, trying to escape her claw. She let go, and the Earring of Sola shot out of her hand and joined its fellow relics in circling the cross.

Swordfish's mouth gaped open. It was the real earring. Rattlesnake had been wearing the Earring of Sola the whole time. His mouth dropped even further when he realized that the one that the Daughters of Amraheim had left here was destroyed when Rattlesnake brought the one from the future into the past, remembering what Anthony told him about Hamza ensuring there were no loopholes. Swordfish tried to think back to all the times Rattlesnake had been injured.

The time when he had been in the Healing Center, after Cedar stabbed him, and Rattlesnake had been looking over him. He had noted that she had healed very fast for someone who had been stabbed.

Another time, when they had gotten captured in Lochberg, and the bounty hunters had shot Rattlesnake's wing, putting a bullet hole through the membrane. It had been glossed over in everything that had happened, and Swordfish didn't even realize how fast it had healed.

 _Wait… the healing center wasn't in this world… how did…_ Swordfish began to wonder, but he told himself to think about it later. Right now, Old Monarchy had just collected all of the Relics of Hamza.

Seilbrenner walked up, and grabbed all three relics again. He gave Rattlesnake a look, and then stepped out of the ring. The relics stopped being attracted to the cross. Seilbrenner cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got them."

The awestruck spell was broken, and the soldiers began to cheer. "WE'VE WON!" A soldier cried, hugging his comrade. "HUMANS AND DRAGONS WILL LIVE TOGETHER IN PEACE!" Swordfish turned to see Vine, indigo, violet, and lavender swirling around her scales. She had an enormous grin on her face.

Michael began to cry again. " _I knew you wouldn't die in vain, Polar._ " He said, through the tears of happiness. Marie began to cry too, hugging Anthony tightly. "It's over." He said, smiling. "Nobody else has to die anymore." The two shared a kiss, the tears still streaming down Marie's face. "If only Gabi could have seen this…" Azure said, smiling.

"The Necklace of Eclis." Vulture said, coming up behind Swordfish, Blizzard close behind. "We can go home." "But… do we want to go home?" Blizzard asked. "By doing this, we've probably changed the whole course of the world. We might've stopped the scorching." Swordfish suddenly realized that the world he had known was probably gone, and replaced with a different one. One where the Camaelists hadn't won.

As the soldiers cheered, Swordfish realized that they might be on a different timeline entirely now. He might have ended Pyrrhia as he knew it.

. . .

"I mean… it's a little extreme, but we can't afford an outbreak of the truth." Cassriel said. Stygal and Nestorats had explained the King's "plan B." The trio had taken human forms and were taking a stroll through Houston, Texas while Cassriel learned the plan. "I can't believe I'm getting dragged into this." Nestorats said glumly. "This was your mistake." She said to Cassriel.

"But nobody else can do what you can do, Fire Master." Stygal said, making a point to say her title. "Yeah, I guess my part of the plan is a little important." Nestorats said. "Would you keep it down?" Cassriel said, looking around nervously. "There could be some of _them_ around here." "Are you really worried about those pests?" Stygal asked Cassriel. "Here? In Texas?" " _They could be anywhere._ " Cassriel said quietly. His eyes darted around from person to person. The man on his phone, the mailman doing his rounds, the woman eating the churro. Anyone could be a spy, or a trap.

"Fine." Nestorats finally said. "I'll do it if the King says I must, but you'll owe me one, poet." She said, her eyes fiery. She walked away briskly, her black ponytail almost slapping Cassriel in the face.

"Is she always like this?" Cassriel asked. Stygal chuckled. "Yeah, pretty much." Cassriel turned and looked up at the nearby church as its bells rang. He realized what day it was. It was the day everything changed.


	41. Chapter 36: Experiment

Suzu Tanaka looked out at the ocean. The ships of the Allied Forces of Black Star were closing in on Paisland. Soon enough, they would have the Relics of Hamza, if that Grasswing wasn't lying. Suzu closed her eyes, and thought about Angela.

 _My love… if I don't return from this… I love you. I always will. Soon, this hell will be over. The dragons will be gone. The future we could have together is what drives me. I love you. Completely. We will be married soon._

She thought as if her girlfriend could hear her thoughts. "Hey, you worried?" Ghada came up and asked Suzu. "Oh… it's nothing." Suzu said quietly. "Just… worried what horrible things could be awaiting us." "Are you scared?" Ghada asked, her black hair covering half of her face in the wind. "… A little." Suzu replied. "What if Old Monarchy is already there, or even worse, Camaelists?"

"Then we beat them back." Ghada said. "Dragons cannot truly outmatch us. We have to give it all we've got, but we are humanity's last hope. We need to show them that we have strength. Mankind is not something that can be stepped on and destroyed so easily. All humans, from all races, from all ages, from all sexualities. Humanity is our most important thing."

"Oh my goddesess, it's Axton Lloyd!" Said a soldier on the other side of the ship, pointing to one of the other boats in the fleet, Suzu and Ghada got up and walked over to the railing, where they could see Axton Lloyd himself. He had come all the way out here. _Why?_

Meanwhile, Barley was cringing as the injury on his arm ached. The Camaelists had been able to kill their Old Monarchy attackers, but at the cost of some of their lives. Barley couldn't find Swordfish, Blizzard, and their strange Rainwing friend he hadn't met. He had scanned the ground when the last Old Monarchy soldier drew their last breath. He couldn't find their bodies, so they couldn't have died… _had they?_

Tornado flew up beside Barley, grunting. "Well _that_ definitely set us back some time." He said. "Why should it matter when we attack it? It's a dangerous mission, being off the coast of Dieautel, and there isn't even anything dangerous on Paisland. It's a waste of time." Barley said. _Come to think of it… they haven't told us_ why _we're going to that island. It doesn't make much strategic sense to take it and set up a base, we would get slaughtered by all the surrounding Old Monarchy allied countries. So what's the purpose?_

Barley focused his attention to the front of the army. He was able to pick out Camael, who always seemed to look like Barley's terrifying uncle, Grasshopper. _I put my faith in Camael. He's led us on the right path so far, why start doubting him now?_

. . .

"The Necklace of Eclis." Vulture said, coming up behind Swordfish, Blizzard close behind. "We can go home." "But… do we want to go home?" Blizzard asked. "By doing this, we've probably changed the whole course of the world. We might've stopped the scorching." Swordfish suddenly realized that the world he had known was probably gone, and replaced with a different one. One where the Camaelists hadn't won.

As the soldiers cheered, Swordfish realized that they might be on a different timeline entirely now. He might have ended Pyrrhia as he knew it.

Seilbrenner put the relics back down on the table, and stared at them. "How should we split them up?" He asked. "Should they all be kept on one person, or split up amongst three?" Swordfish was hardly paying attention while he was worrying that the world he knew was gone, yet again, when he heard a noise come from the tunnel exit he and the others had come out of. He looked up to it, but nothing was there.

"Maybe… I should just hold them all, for safe keeping." Seilbrenner said quietly, grabbing the Dagger of Luna. Swordfish stepped to the side as one of the other soldiers from the Commander's group pushed past him. He couldn't see her face, but she seemed intently focused on the commander.

She began walking towards him. "Hey!" Said one of the soldiers from the other group. "That's not one of ours!" Seilbrenner turned around and saw the woman walking towards him. "You're…" he began, when the soldier pulled out a long, curved knife and dashed at the commander with alarming speed.

"DANIEL!" Marie cried, Anthony and some of the other soldiers began running at the woman, but Blizzard got there first, moving with her animus-created speed Frost gave her. She tackled the woman, who fell to the ground under her talons. Blizzard grabbed the knife and threw it to the other side of the room.

Seilbrenner walked up to the woman, still holding the Dagger of Luna, and bent down and took off the Old Monarchy helmet. "It's her." Anthony said with anger. The woman's black hair was messy and her eyes were piercing. "This woman was with Zane Jergens when he killed Gabi." Anthony said. Marie and Azure turned and looked at the woman with the same anger. Swordfish recognized her too, as the assassin who tried to kill Seilbrenner in Sainsbury, Nikita.

Rattlesnake gasped, as she must have recognized her too. Rattlesnake had almost killed her back in Sainsbury, but had been stopped by one of Nikita's other assassins. This time, Nikita was alone.

"Sir, what do we do? We don't have any way to take her prisoner." Said one of the other soldiers. Seilbrenner kept staring at the dagger in his hand. "We kill her." He said. "She would be executed anyway. She's a skilled Black Star assassin." Swordfish noted Vine staring at Nikita, a pained expression on her face.

"Daniel Seilbrenner." Nikita finally said. "You're a hard man to kill." She had a thick Otkhod accent. "In fact, it looks like it may be _me_ who gets the blade in the end." She turned her head as much as she could and looked at him. "Go ahead and do it. I do not fear death."

"Perhaps you won't need to." Seilbrenner said. "Do you know what this is?" He asked her, showing her the dagger. "If I would have to guess, I would say the Dagger of Luna." Nikita said fearlessly. "And those over there are the Earring of Sola and the Necklace of Eclis." She nodded her head towards the carved stone block which the two other relics lay. "Congratulations, you've sold your soul to the devil." She laughed. "What do you mean by that?" Blizzard asked, still holding the assassin down.

"It takes an iron will to truly use the powers those relics hold for good. That much power can twist and contort, even the truest of people. Just like the Daughters of Amraheim. You've doomed yourself to a future of evil." Nikita said through gritted teeth. "No. A man as crazy as you is probably already twisted. You only want those relics for yourself. You know what could be done with them." She finished, silencing everyone in the cavern.

"And what? Axton Lloyd wouldn't be twisted?" Michael asked, breaking the silence. "He probably would." Nikita said, surprising everyone there. "I don't hail that man. His top general just employed me to kill Daniel Seilbrenner. It was just a job."

"Now, I really don't want to kill you." Seilbrenner said, looking at Nikita with intrigue. "But before I order Blizzard here to set you free, I want you to listen to a story." Swordfish looked at Seilbrenner worriedly. _Was the assassin right? Did he only want the relics for himself? They should have been getting out as fast as they could, with Black Star and the Camaelists closing in._

"Fourteen years ago, the dragons appeared in Jeoul. Almost everyone in Jeoul was killed that night. There were not many survivors. Also, most dragons who have been alive since then have no memory of that night. The last thing I found very odd was that the dragons all appeared at different ages, some appearing very young, and others, old and worn." Seilbrenner said.

"The creation of the dragons is something that many have thought about. Many theories have been made, but until now, we've had no way to test them. The most popular theory is that dragons are the 'other half' of the Postangels." Swordfish was confused, and his friends looked it too. "Ah, let me explain for those of us who don't know the story." Seilbrenner said, glancing at the dragonets.

"After a great celestial being, God, created Earth, our planet, he created his three daughters to watch over it, the three Moon Goddesses." He said, and Swordfish recalled Marie telling him that the Goddesses were created by another, greater being. "Sola created twelve, lesser godly beings to help them rule over the life on Earth that God left behind. The Twelve Angels. And essentially, they looked like a human and a dragon, but mixed. But Luna feared the Angels were too powerful, and stripped them of their godly power, and 'dragon' attributes, and made them into humans. The first 'Postangels.'"

Swordfish looked over at Anthony, who noticed him and avoided eye contact. This seemed like something rather important that he skipped over. Did he do it on purpose?

"Now, the theory most have accepted as being most probable, especially for those in Black Star, is that the dragons are the other 'Postangels.' If Luna had gone the other way, and removed all the 'human' attributes from the Angels. But there's another theory, and now, I have a way to test it."

Seilbrenner stepped forward, grabbed Nikita's arm out from under Blizzard, and slit her wrist with the Dagger of Luna. The runes on the dagger glowed a familiar blue light, the same blue light that came from the gate to the past the necklace opened in the old Nightwing kingdom. "Blizzard, let Nikita up now." The commander ordered. Blizzard stepped back, a horrified expression on her face.

"What did you do?" Nikita asked, standing up. Blizzard began backing away, staring at the assassin. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Nikita asked again, this time yelling. Seilbrenner smiled. "Began the experiment." He said.

Nikita fell to her knees, and began breathing heavily. Everyone in the cavern stared at her. She put her hands on the ground, and screamed. And then it started.

Two large bones began protruding out of her back, and then split open the skin. The watchers in the cave began to scream. Swordfish was transfixed on the horrific scene, as the bones continued to grow, sprouting long finger-like bones. Like wings. A similar thing began to happen to Nikita's behind, as a long bone sprouted out, like a tail.

Vine began shrieking as Nikita almost exploded outward, her bones becoming large, and her face elongating and ripping through the skin. She made a horrific noise, no longer fully human. A bloodcurdling shriek that echoed through the cavern. She began to smoke from the mouth as two horns burst through the top of her head, which no longer had skin on it, and was beginning to form black scales.

Marie had passed out, and Anthony was covering his eyes, holding Marie, just as scared. Seilbrenner just watched in what seemed like curiosity as what used to be Nikita's hands twisted and contorted, her fingernails falling out and being replaced with claws.

And then, just when Swordfish thought it couldn't get any worse, her torso exploded into flames. Swordfish fell to the ground and began screaming along with everyone else in the cavern except the commander. Nikita fell to the ground in pain and dragon-like screeching as her chest exploded in a burst of flame and smoke.

"My theory was correct!" Seilbrenner crowed over the noise of the screaming. "Dragons are not their own species, they are humans! Transformed humans! The people of Jeoul were not eaten and killed, they were turned into the first dragons! And they appeared at the age they would be in dragon years!"

Swordfish suddenly collapsed and the world around him disappeared. He awoke again in a world of blackness and silence. He stood up, and felt himself get to his own two feet. He looked down, and saw himself. Two legs. Two arms, pale skin. And somehow, he wasn't surprised. Like, he had always known. Something inside him had always known.

He took a cautious step forward, becoming familiar with his two-legged self. He put one hand on top of his head, and felt the hair on top. The human put a hand to his face and felt his mouth, his nose, his chin. It almost felt… familiar.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the silence. "Swordfish!" Said the disembodied voice. "Swordfish!" It said again, and then Swordfish woke up to see Blizzard standing over him, her eyes wide and her claws trembling. "You're alright!" She said, wrapping her wings around him. Swordfish put his claw forward to see it was a hand.

He blinked in surprise and it went back to normal. He slowly got up, and felt surprised to have four feet, but after a moment, it passed. Swordfish looked around to see that Rattlesnake, Vine, Vulture, Azure, and the other two dragons from Seilbrenner's group were passed out. Then, he saw the burned and blackened half-dragon body of Nikita Petrov and almost fell over again in shock as he remembered what happened.

"Three moons. Three moons. Three moons." He repeated quietly. "I know." Blizzard said quietly. "She… turned into a dragon. Or, at least started to become one." Swordfish could feel how hard she was trembling. "She started becoming a Nightwing… the fire didn't come in right or something. And then you all passed out." "You… didn't?" Swordfish asked. Blizzard paused. "I started to, but I managed to stop myself."

"Swordfish!" Anthony said, walking over. He looked just as scared as Blizzard. "You're alright. They're going to be alright!" Anthony called out to the rest of the humans. Swordfish saw that the soldiers were trying to awaken the dragons from their strange sleep.

"They're all… in that place." Swordfish said. "We need to get them out!" He cried, running over to Rattlesnake. "Come on!" He said, suddenly filled with terror again. He looked at Rattlesnake's beautiful face, asleep and emotionless. "Rattlesnake!" He called. "Rattlesnake!" He shook her.

She snapped awake and inhaled sharply. Her eyes darted around and then focused on Swordfish. " _Swordfish._ " She said quietly, trembling like Swordfish and Blizzard had been. She reached upwards and lightly touched his face, but she looked at her talon with wide eyes.

"…Hand?" Swordfish asked quietly, and Rattlesnake nodded. "What do you mean?" Anthony asked. "When… I was asleep. I had… like a dream. But it felt… like a memory. I was a human, and when I woke up, I still felt like a human."

"The primitive brain." Seilbrenner said, walking towards Swordfish. "A part of the brain left over from your human ancestors, whoever they may be. I believe it's what makes dragons so close to humans in intelligence and emotion. Why dragon brains appear to function so similarly to humans in comparison to other reptiles and animals. Seeing Nikita go from human to dragon reminded that core human part of your brain what it truly is under the scales and wings."

"You're insane." Anthony said, stepping away from Seilbrenner. "I always thought you were strange, the way you improvised gear in San Palagino and sent soldiers out into a sandstorm. The way you tossed a baby in the courtroom, just hoping that these dragonets would save it. The way you so willingly approved my travels with Rainfall. But this…" Anthony pointed to the horrific remains of Nikita. "This is too far."

"He plans to take the relics for himself." Rattlesnake suddenly croaked. "I grew up in the Scorpion Den. I learned to read dragons, and if dragons are humans, I can read them too. When Nikita accused him of wanting those things for himself, I saw the face of someone caught. Someone whose true intentions had been brought to light."

As the dragons around the cave were woken up, a group began to encircle Seilbrenner. Looks of horror plastered on their faces. Swordfish saw Vine and Vulture going through the same ordeal of realizing what they truly were. Marie's face had tear marks lining her cheeks, her lightly dark skin reflecting the torchlight of the cavern.

"Why did you do that, Commander? Wouldn't killing her have been easier for all of us? More merciful?" One of the soldiers, the same one who had called out Nikita asked, he scratched his beard, the terror clearly showing in his eyes.

"When I was a boy I looked down upon an anthill. I saw how small they were, and how many of them there were. Their lives were short and insignificant. I began to play around with them, destroying certain parts of the anthills and seeing how they reacted, putting drops of water on them, exposing them to magnified light. I found it interesting to see the reactions of the ants when faced with obstacles and strange things. Soon, I began to wonder if the same could be said about us. What if we are the ants? What if our lives are short and insignificant as well?" Seilbrenner said, backing away from the group that was staring at him in horror.

"So after coming to this realization, that all of us are just playthings as well, ants crawling through the grass, I began experimenting with people." The commander continued. "We gain nothing if we just sit back and never innovate. In fact, we must always come up with something new, or face destruction. Always experiment, no matter the cost. Be it throwing a baby, sending troops into a sandstorm, trusting a strange Rainwing, or turning a Black Star assassin into a dragon, it's all just a test."

Swordfish looked at the man he once had respect for with terror. Seilbrenner didn't care. All of this was just some sort of game to him. "And with these relics… I can finally do things that will help humanity. It's the meaning of my small and purposeless life!" The commander cried. "Would that include ending the war?" Marie asked. "Perhaps." Replied Seilbrenner. "But war means more chaos, more people and dragons willing to try and experiment."

The commander suddenly dashed over to the relics. "And don't try to stop me, or I'll age all of you forward until you're piles of dust on the ground!" He yelled, holding up the Necklace of Eclis. Swordfish hadn't even noticed that the cavern had begun to shake. "Hey! What's happening?!" Asked a Sandwing from the other group, before a rock dislodged itself from the roof and smashed her head into the ground with a bloody _smack._

The dragons and humans stared at the cavern around them in horror until the wall closest to Seilbrenner began to crumble. The commander shrieked, and began grabbing the relics. "We need to get out." Blizzard said. "Now." "What's happening?!" Vine asked, her bandage around her eye beginning to come loose. As if to answer her question, a giant black and red talon burst through the wall, meticulously reaching for the commander. Swordfish stared at it in horror. _Camael._

Commander Daniel Seilbrenner began to run, but he wasn't fast enough. He was carrying all three relics in his arms, when the roof began to collapse further. He fell to the ground and the relics were scattered out in front of him. "NOOOOO!" He screamed as the rocks, boulders, and debris collapsed on top of him. And then he was gone.

Michael grabbed the Necklace of Eclis, which was closest to him, while Rattlesnake grabbed her earring and the Dagger of Luna. Swordfish saw Anthony give the pile of rocks one last look before escaping with everyone else.

As they ran, they began meeting up with other groups, who stared at the relics in awe before running away as well. The whole mountain seemed to be coming down, and the twisting tunnels didn't help. Every time the mountain shook, Swordfish could swear he saw dust fall down from above him as the whole place began to collapse.

Swordfish had to stop himself from collapsing multiple times throughout the journey. He kept flickering back to that dark place, and himself as a human. He felt like he kept tripping over his four legs, and getting his wings caught on things, as if he had never had them before.

The Old Monarchy soldiers eventually managed to get out of the caves, but were met with a horrific scene. Paisland was burning. The Camaelists had set fire to the forest in an attempt to kill the Old Monarchy forces.

Swordfish turned around to see the shape of an enormous dragon within the clouds of smoke. He was black and blood-red. His eyes seemed to pierce through the veil of smoke. It was Camael. Marie pointed up at him in horror. Swordfish saw Camael turn his head and look at the soldiers coming out of the caverns. "HE SAW US!" Yelled the bearded soldier. "RUN!" He began to escape down the mountain, but a Skywing swooped down and shredded his throat with her talons. He fell to the ground, his head falling off completely with the impact.

Camael kept staring, but then turned away and began focusing on destroying the mountain again. A chunk of rock tumbled down the mountain, nearly crushing Michael, who was able to run away in time. As the rest of the Old Monarchy troops escaped the cavern, they began heading down towards the beaches again for takeoff. Swordfish realized that he, Blizzard, and Vine were unarmed, and had left mobile rifles and other weapons back at the homestead. As they approached the beach, the Old Monarchy soldiers were met with more bad news. Black Star naval ships had formed a blockade between Paisland and the mainland, and were in fierce combat with the Camaelists. Dragon and human bodies were laying in the water, their blood turning the water red. Parts of boats floated by, burning. Gunshots and roars filled the air.

"YOU! YOU TWO WITH THE RELICS!" Yelled Commander Meltzer from behind Swordfish. Rattlesnake and Michael turned around. "GET OUT OF THE BATTLE!" He ordered. "WHERE'S SEILBRENNER?!" One of the soldiers from Seilbrenner's group said something to Meltzer, who sighed.

Swordfish watched Michael begin to run to the safety of the trees and Rattlesnake follow closely behind. But suddenly, and without warning, a dark purple shape descended out of a tree and landed on Rattlesnake. Michael had already ran into the woods with the Necklace of Eclis, but the Aniwing had been able to catch Rattlesnake.

"They entrust two of the three relics to a dragonet?" General Wraith hissed, wrestling Rattlesnake to the ground. Rattlesnake grunted and began twisting her barbed tail in a position to strike Wraith's back, but Wraith grabbed her tail without even looking. "Nice try." He said, twisting her tail in two different directions. Rattlesnake screamed, and Wraith grabbed the Dagger of Luna in her moment of weakness.

Swordfish and Blizzard rammed into Wraith at the same time, knocking him off of Rattlesnake. The dagger landed in the grass nearby. The Aniwing stood up, and looked around him as Rattlesnake, Swordfish, Blizzard, Vine, and Vulture stood around him. "Five dragonets, huh?" He muttered. "I really thought Old Monarchy would have something better to offer."

. . .

"Where are the others?" Asha Wirnman asked Michael. "A Sandwing named Rattlesnake has them." He replied. He had shown her the Necklace of Eclis, which looked smaller and less important in the light of day. "Well, we have to ensure that those are safe. Where is she?" Asha asked. "I'm not sure." Michael replied. "I thought she would be behind me."

Asha peeked her head above the fallen-over tree the two were hiding behind. "I don't see her." She said softly. _Damn it._ Michael thought. _What happened to her?_

Suddenly, a gunshot sounded. Michael jumped. Asha fell backward, a large bullet hole through her cheek. Her body landed in the dirt and leaves. Michael got up and saw General Zane Jergens aim his pistol again. Michael rolled behind a tree and the bullet shot through the wood above his head, splintering bits of the tree sprinkling down on his head. Michael turned his head and looked at Asha's dead body.

"I thought you were fighting _for_ humanity." Michael said from behind the tree. "Not _against_ them." "I am." Jergens replied. "But some blood needs to be spilled in order for that to happen. We're all making sacrifices here." Michael paused and waited to hear the sound of a reload, but it didn't happen. "Besides, you're one to talk about fighting for humanity when you work alongside those beasts." Jergens said, closer now. Michael began loading his rifle, maneuvering his arms in such a position so that Jergens wouldn't be able to see it.

"Well, maybe some dragons can be more human than even some humans themselves." Michael said, stalling for time. "Perhaps they can." Jergens said through gritted teeth, moving closer. "For example, how can you call yourself a human when you fight for Old Monarchy?" "I'm not sure." Michael said, quietly completing the load.

"Besides, you kill people too, right? Black Star soldiers?" Jergens asking, now right on the other side of the tree. "Maybe." Michael replied, and pointed the gun around the tree and fired.

A sizeable hole was blasted through the side of the tree, and Zane Jergens stumbled backward to avoid the debris. Michael got up and began to run. Jergens was close behind him, aiming his pistol. "That necklace is all I need." He said, when suddenly, another group of Camaelists darted past above the trees, letting fire fall from their mouths and onto the forest. Flames lit the ground at Michael's feet.

Michael was suddenly grabbed by the uniform and yanked backward. Zane Jergens turned him around and grabbed him by the throat. Michael felt the barrel of the pistol violently pushing against his throat underneath his chin. "If you give me the necklace, I won't blast your head into chunks." Jergens growled. Michael grunted and used his free arm to punch Jergen's in the cheek.

The surprise of the hit made the Black Star general loosen his grip, and Michael swatted the pistol out of his hand. The gun landed in the flames nearby. Jergens turned to look at Michael, and then threw him backward in anger.

Michael landed on the ground next to his rifle. He picked it up and began to aim, but Jergens was already nearly on top of him, brandishing a long knife. Michael fired the gun.

The bullet grazed Jergens' shoulder, making him groan in pain. But he kept going, tossing the rifle to the side, and then he moved the knife downward, as to slit Michael's throat.

Michael kicked Jergens in the crotch, and then punched him in the face once more, making him stumble backward again. Michael stood up, and glanced over at his rifle. It was too far away now. Jergens swung at Michael and hit him in the left shoulder, which made a _crack_.

Jergens began to go in for another hit, when Michael used his right arm to try and sweep out his legs out from under him. He was able to unbalance one leg, which made Jergens begin to fall down, but he righted himself and threw Michael to the ground once more.

Jergens punched Michael in the face, once, twice, three times. Michael began to taste blood. Jergens' angered face began to become blurry as Michael was nearly knocked unconscious. "The necklace was destined to fall into the right hands eventually." Jergens said as he carefully pulled the Necklace of Eclis off of Michael, who attempted to hit him once more, but was stopped by Jergens.

"The power of the goddesses is ancient. It predates humanity entirely. Yet it still knows that it is us Postangels who must dominate under the goddesses itself. That's why, in the end, the relics will always find their way back to those who will use them to dominate." Said General Zane Jergens, draping the necklace around himself.

"Dragons… are us." Michael spat. "They literally are humans… it's the power of Luna… manipulate the building blocks… of life. Don't preach about being above them… when they are humans beneath the scales."

Suddenly, another wave of Camaelists began to drop fire down upon the forest. Jergens stood up, and adjusted the necklace on himself. "I guess burning is a fitting end for a man who suggests the dragons are as holy as we are." And then he began to run away from the flames, leaving Michael to die.

Michael tried to stand up, but the pain was too great. He couldn't let Jergens escape with the necklace. He couldn't end here, dying without avenging Polar. But the heat began to get to him, and he collapsed, his wounds sending streaks of pain through his head.

Michael lay there, collapsed. The flames were getting closer. Soon, they would consume him. He heard the noises of screaming, roars, gunshots, and the other noises of the battle rampaging beyond the trees.

Suddenly, Michael felt himself be lifted up, away and out of the flames. He couldn't open his eyes, but he felt talons grab his shoulders and pull him out of danger. "Don't worry. We can catch that bastard later." Said a voice, and Michael was laid down in safety. "The necklace… can't…" Michael began before fully going unconscious, and entering a sleep haunted by dead bodies, Camael, and humans turning into dragons.

. . .

Wraith drew in a breath and blasted fire at Vine, who turned invisible, and appeared to dodge the attack. Swordfish descended out of the sky and lashed at Wraith with his powerful Seawing tail, but Wraith took to the sky as well, and then moved at incredible speeds. He dodged the tail and scratched Swordfish's face with his claws.

 _The animyre._ Swordfish remembered. The Aniwing ability. Time moves slower for a short amount of time, but the Aniwing moves normal speed. Swordfish fell backward, blood spurting out of his wound.

Rattlesnake descended out of the higher airspace, attacking Wraith with her barbed tail, but he got out of the way, and went for her throat with his claws. But Rattlesnake blocked the attack, staring Wraith right in the eyes. She raised her tail again, which must have still been sore from Wraith twisting it. But Wraith flung her to the side. Rattlesnake collided with Swordfish in the air, knocking Swordfish further away.

Vulture attacked Wraith from the behind, but the Aniwing called on the animyre again, easily dodging his attack and tossing him to the side. Wraith made a dive for the dagger laying in the grass, but Blizzard suddenly attacked him out of nowhere, making a considerable slice into his back with her serrated claws. Wraith spun around and blasted fire in her direction, which caught her arm, but Blizzard kept on going, like it didn't even hurt.

Blizzard spun around and swiped at Wraith with the end of her tail, which only barely missed. The Camaelist general swung at her with his claws, but Blizzard parried him with an attack of her own, which made a bloody claw mark down his face.

Wraith growled, but before he could attack her, Blizzard began calling the frost within. She blasted the Aniwing with the icy breath, but she didn't have enough range. Wraith was too far away. But suddenly, Vulture flung himself onto Wraith, brandishing the Dagger of Luna.

"VULTURE! WHAT ARE YOU-" Rattlesnake screamed, but Vulture began yelling something of his own, cutting her off. "YOU HATE HUMANS? HERE, HAVE THIS!" He screeched, raising the dagger, beating his wings heavily to keep the Aniwing from flying away. But Wraith slashed at Vulture's eyepatch with his wing, making Vulture reel backward with pain. Wraith grabbed the dagger before it fell out of the sky.

Vine appeared again, this time behind Wraith. She leapt forward, talons outstretched to grab the dagger away. Wraith spun around and grabbed Vine's throat, studying her face. "You're the one who killed Stone, weren't you?" He hissed. "One of his servants finally killed that old fool." Wraith brought his arm upwards, as to strike down and slit Vine's throat, but all four other dragonets attacked Wraith.

Wraith roared as all five dragonets got him down to the ground. "Do we take him prisoner or just kill him?" Blizzard asked, but she never got an answer. Five Camaelist dragons suddenly descended out of the battle to subdue their general's attackers. Swordfish felt the cold talons of an Icewing grab him from behind. Swordfish just watched as his friends were attacked too. Just like when they were escaping the Darkists.

"… Swordfish?" Asked a familiar voice. Swordfish turned his head enough to see Rattlesnake's attacker. It was Tornado. The Skywing turned and looked at Blizzard as well. "Wait… you two were…" He looked hurt.

"Sir, do we kill them?" Asked the Mudwing holding Vulture. "Wait. Take off the Sandwing's earring." Wraith ordered. The Mudwing began to reach for the Earring of Sola, when he himself was suddenly attacked by a Sandwing, on her back, a woman. Swordfish felt the Rainwing who was holding him back be knocked away as well. "GET THE DAGGER!" Swordfish heard a voice yell.

But Swordfish was transfixed on Tornado, who was still looking at him and Blizzard, but then, a Nightwing flew by above him, and the shape of Anthony fell down from the Nightwing and grabbed onto Tornado.

Swordfish froze. The battle seemed to slow down all around him as Tornado wrestled with Anthony, who had two mobile shotguns, loaded and ready. Tornado blasted fire at Anthony, but he wasn't fast enough. Anthony got to Tornado's head, aimed for the weak spot, and fired.

The sound of the blast of the gun snapped Swordfish back to real time as Tornado's body began to fall out of the sky, his face blasted open, the shells buried deep into his skull. The Nightwing flew downward to catch Anthony as Tornado fell into the burning ground below.

Swordfish screamed. He didn't know why, but the realization of what had happened washed over him like water surrounding a rock on the beach. Swordfish suddenly looked up to see Camael was looking over at the battle between Wraith and his soldiers fighting Old Monarchy.

"GO! GO! GO!" Cried a voice, and Swordfish turned to see that Commander Meltzer was holding the dagger. "Asha is with the necklace! We need to get out! Now!" The dragonback soldiers began flying back towards the mainland.

Swordfish was swept away by the crowd of dragons flying back to the Dieautish coast as Camael destroyed the mountain. They were easily able to bypass the Black Star fleet, as their guns could not reach the dragons flying so far above.

When they arrived back on the mainland beach, Swordfish saw Rattlesnake and Anthony run over to somebody laying on the ground. "Oh my goddesses. Michael!" Marie cried when she saw who it was. Michael was bloody, and his shoulder didn't look too good. He coughed when he was awoken. "The necklace…" He croaked to everyone's horror. "Asha is dead. Black Star has the necklace."

Swordfish looked back at the mountain as the battle between Black Star and the Camaelists raged. Two species, locked in combat. Yet they were the same. The dragons were humans from the beginning. Swordfish looked at his talons to see them flicker to hands for a few seconds, before turning back.

. . .

It was late afternoon now, and the Black Star ships were retreating. Camael had destroyed the mountain, along with the Relics of Hamza. Brittaney Colens sat in the main ship along with the other Black Star higher ups, save Zane Jergens, who hadn't been seen since the siege began.

The room was silent as the boat rocked back and forth. They had lost many brave men and women in the battle, and it was for nothing. The relics had been destroyed, if they hadn't, that meant Old Monarchy, or worse, the Camaelists, had them. Yet Axton Lloyd did not seem disturbed. He almost seemed like he was in a good mood, bringing out a fine wine and glasses. "Excuse my questioning, why are you celebrating?" Asked General Marsalis Durante. "This has been a horrible disaster for us." "Call it a resolve. I've finally figured something out." Lloyd said, and Brittaney felt the familiar chill go up her spine again.

The door of the room was suddenly burst open, and in walked Zane Jergens and at least 14 armed soldiers behind him. His dark eyes were trained on Axton Lloyd. Around his neck was a necklace, which had a small knife-shaped pendant on it. The soldiers suddenly pointed the guns at the Black Star leaders. Brittaney was in shock as one of the soldiers she knew, a woman named Suzu Tanaka, aimed her rifle at Brittaney. As the other leaders began to yell and scream, Axton Lloyd remained calm and collected. He returned the stare back at Zane Jergens, his blue eyes staring into Jergens'.

"I hold the Necklace of Eclis." Jergens said. "Axton Lloyd, you have led Black Star down many poor choices as your time as its leader, but this failure is truly the last straw." He boomed. "You lead us into strange places and situations, where we only seem to lose. Your allegiance to humanity is questionable. I could lead this coalition of countries and kingdoms far better than you ever could."

Brittaney knew the day may come one day, but she was still surprised. Zane Jergens held one third of the power of Hamza in his hand. He was going to overthrow Axton Lloyd and take command. "The military already obeys me over all. I am giving you all a chance to surrender, or you will be shot. Right here and now." "Goddesses almighty, watch over us and grant us good fortune in this time of darkness." Abd Al-Malik suddenly said quietly. "Shut up you dog!" Jergens barked.

"Axton Lloyd, do you peacefully step down from your position as Supreme Leader, or do I get the pleasure of killing you myself?" Jergens asked, pointing a pistol at the Prophet. Lloyd didn't seem troubled by this at all. "General, do you know how to use that thing that lies around your neck?" He asked. Jergens was silent before saying "Of course I do!"

"Then go ahead. Kill me." Lloyd said confidently. Everyone in the room looked at him in shock, except Jergens, who smirked. "Finally." He said, and aimed his pistol and fired.

The bullet went right into Lloyd's chest. Someone screamed. Axton Lloyd fell to the ground, but he wasn't dead. He got back up, gritting his teeth. "…What?" Jergens asked, shocked. He fired again, and this time, Lloyd didn't even fall down. The prophet took a step towards Jergens.

Jergens fired again, and again. The bullets didn't seem to affect Axton Lloyd other than putting bloody holes through him. The soldiers who were with Jergens stopped aiming their weapons, staring at the scene in front of them with awe and fear.

"Why… won't… you… die!?" Jergens screamed, firing two more shots. Axton just smiled. He was right up in front of Jergens now. "You don't know how to use it, do you?" He asked. Zane Jergens was beginning to sweat. He turned his head and saw his soldiers were no longer behind him.

"You see, you need to give it a command." Lloyd said quietly. He ripped the necklace off of Jergens. He touched the stone, and whispered a command in the dead language of Valkskyan. " _Arma manu Eclis, Sinite reni velum."_ He said, and then pointed his open hand at Jergens.

Jergens almost collapsed. He screamed a scream of pure pain. His hair became greyer, his skin more wrinkled. He opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was screaming. His hair became white. Spots appeared on his skin, which was beginning to sag. His muscles began to deteriorate, his body becoming weaker and weaker.

He suddenly collapsed, his knees becoming too weak. He screamed again, but it was weak and almost a whisper. Then, his skin began to fall off. His bones began to turn to mush. His hair fell out along with his eyes, which turned to mush on the floor. His fingers began to shrivel up and fall off, and then all his skin was gone. His muscles and bones remained until they deteriorated as well, and all that remained of Zane Jergens was a dark spot on the wooden floor, along with his clothes and items he had on him.

When the silence had reached a breaking point, Abd Al-Malik flung himself to the ground. "HE TRULY IS THE PROPHET!" Everyone bowed alongside him. Bowed to the Prophet, the man who knew the holy will.


	42. Chapter 37: Aftermath

"My King… I fear Old Monarchy has the relics." Camael said, bowing. The King of the Demons sighed. " _Black Star has the necklace. Old Monarchy may have the other two of them, and even if they do, they cannot stop what is to come. The path towards their demise has already begun. I have spoken to Ipos. Your side in this conflict will result victorious_. "

"Is it true that dragons _must_ destroy and reshape the world so that we may have more freedom, or can we do it by targeting certain entities? Can all this bloodshed be avoided?" Camael asked. " _I wish it was that easy. I wish that innocent people and dragons did not have to die, even if it is only of one world. But we have been slaves to the Visitors for far too long. It's time we begin our movement towards freedom."_ The King of the Demons stood out on the balcony of his central tower, overlooking Hell.

 _"I look over those I rule over and think to myself, 'Have I been a good king?'_ _The demons have no freedom as it is today. Even if you live forever, and aging is but an alien concept, it is pointless if you are a slave. You cannot find enjoyment in working forever. There needs to be good things in eternal life, because if there is not, what is the point in it?_ " Camael was silent. " _So I have decided to be the king I should have been from the beginning. No matter the cost. All children of the Multiverse shall live a rich and prosperous life, no matter how many characters have to die. Besides, they're all fake in the end, aren't they?_ " Camael nodded solemnly. _"I understand it can be hard to be the Destroyer sometimes, Camael. The one who must undertake the most destructive and hurtful tasks. But things must change. We must take another step forward."_ The King had fire in his eyes. " _We_ must _begin our uprising."_

. . .

Suzu Tanaka bowed alongside the other soldiers that had followed Zane Jergens' orders. "PLEASE! WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WE WERE DOING!" Cried George Machado. "WE WERE TRAINED TO FOLLOW HIS ORDERS NO MATTER WHAT!" "None of you shall be punished." Said Axton Lloyd. Suzu could feel sweat dripping off her forehead and onto the wooden floor as she bowed.

"Why would I punish confused soldiers who didn't know what they were doing, because of the actions of one treacherous snake?" Lloyd asked, and then paused. "You… can stop bowing now." "Right, yes." Said Machado quickly, standing up. Suzu and the others did the same. "Besides, we have the necklace now. Time is now something we can bend forwards and backwards, and even step into." Lloyd whispered into the necklace once more, and then the necklace glowed. A portal to another place opened in the middle of the room.

Lloyd closed his hand over the necklace and the portal closed. "This means we are officially one third of the way to winning this war, exterminating the dragons, and restoring humanity to its former glory." The room of men and women cheered strangely, the fear of the general's death still rippling through them.

Axton Lloyd stepped out onto the dock of the ship, and held up the necklace so that all nearby ships could see. Cheers erupted from the soldiers of Black Star. Their prophet held the power to manipulate time itself. In fact, in their excitement and celebration, they became distracted, and didn't notice the dragon who had been stalking the ships come out of hiding.

Suzu saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see what it was. But nothing was there. She turned back to looking at Axton Lloyd, images of Zane Jergens deteriorating in front of her flickering through her mind. When the Icewing appeared.

The Icewing moved fast, and most of the soldiers couldn't respond fast enough. The Icewing slashed through two guards and tackled Axton Lloyd to the ground. Screaming began echoing off of the boats as the Icewing wrestled the Necklace of Eclis off of Lloyd, who yelled something in a language Suzu could not recognize.

Guns began firing, but the Icewing hardly seemed to notice they were getting shot at. The ice dragon was badly burned, and was disfigured. There were long claw marks down the Icewing's back. They leapt into the air as the soldiers screamed threats. "NO! THE NECKLACE!" "DAMN THOSE DEMONS!" "WE NEED TO GIVE CHASE!"

Suzu watched as the exhausted fleet could only sail as fast as they could towards the Icewing, who had already disappeared into the clouds with the necklace. The last beacon of hope, gone. Suzu got down on her knees, and now there was no sweat dripping onto the wood. Only tears.

. . .

Buckombe, the capital city of Arnia was awake early that morning. The entourage of soldiers coming back from Paisland were worn and tired. Soldiers who were stationed around the city welcomed them warmly, but with strange looks on their faces. Swordfish and the other dragonets were led by Marie into a large cathedral they could sleep in, which Swordfish instantly did, exhausted. Swordfish hadn't slept since Polar woke him up that morning to go on patrol.

 _"Of course I'm angry! My friend, Swordfish, died! His clawmate Cedar stabbed him, in an act of horrific betrayal! I survived, and it should've been him. I went through the process of losing someone I really liked. I cried! He died in the healing center!"_ Swordfish was alone in the dark with Rattlesnake. It was her tearful rant in the forest, except there was nothing but black, empty space. Just Swordfish and her.

 _"And then, an 'exact copy' of him, sent by a 'demon,' comes walking in like it's nothing! He might have all the same memories, but it's not really him, and it NEVER WILL BE! And what? I'm just supposed to go on with my life like he never even died, and FORGET ABOUT SWORDFISH? IF HE CAN JUST BE REPLACED, WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF HIM?"_ Rattlesnake continued, the familiar tears falling down her face. She then disappeared into dust.

Swordfish stepped backward, and he suddenly tumbled out of the darkness and into his bed back at Jade Mountain.

"Wake up, sleepy."

Swordfish groaned. It was his clawmate. A Mudwing named Cedar. Swordfish had just come to Jade Mountain for its second year.

Cedar was Swordfish's clawmate. He was energetic for a Mudwing. Swordfish groggily sat up from his bed of sea vegetation and shells. While Cedar rushed around, getting everything he needed for class, Swordfish thought about his nightmare. It seemed so vivid at the time, but now it seemed fragmented and unreal. Like just a scroll story. What in Pyrrhia were "visitors?" He knew about Dreamvisitors ever since Starflight, Jade Mountain's Librarian, collected all three. The news of such once-thought lost animus objects being found all within a few weeks was very popular.

But these weren't Dreamvisitors. The "visitors" were alive.

Swordfish grabbed a few scrolls from his rack and set out of his cave, with Cedar following him. "What do you think the first class will have will Webs test us on what I don't know…" Cedar's constant blabbing made Swordfish calmer. Somehow. He avoided eye contact with other dragonets as he made his way through the halls. Swordfish left Cedar when they got to the new History Cave. He went to sit at the back of the room. He looked around at the other dragonets in his winglet. There was Cedar. There was a Nightwing half-asleep on the table. There was an Icewing glaring at the snoring Nightwing with her bright blue eyes. There was a Skywing secretly drawing something. No Rainwings or Sandwings.

Webs came into the class and began to introduce himself. Swordfish reached to get one of his scrolls. When he got back up, he saw that a female Sandwing had appeared in one of the empty seats.

She didn't just come in quickly. She literally appeared. No one else seemed to sense something strange. Swordfish stared at her.

 _How did she teleport?_

Suddenly, Swordfish blinked and everyone in the room had become humans. They sat forward, unblinking, unmoving. And then, they began to gruesomely transform. Wings ripping out of their backs and their faces contorting. Swordfish turned to see Vulture. His normal doodles had been replaced with pictures of a dagger, a necklace, and an earring.

Then, everyone began to disappear around him, fading into black dust. It began with Webs, but spread to everyone else. Swordfish watched helplessly as everyone began to dissolve. Everyone, until he was alone with Cedar.

And then, Swordfish saw a dark place once more, he was staring into Cedar's eyes as something seemed to creep around him. " _Don't falter yet. Don't let the bad place get you._ " Said the voice of an old dragon. _"You've gotten through some hard things. Some things that have attacked your very psyche. More is yet to come, but you can't let it get to you. Never forget who you were. Don't let me win!"_

And then a familiar frenzied rush of strange sights washed over Swordfish, and then he was awake.

"Hey Swordfish." Anthony said. He was leaning up against the wall of the cathedral, which was now filled with other dragons who had no other place to stay, mostly soldiers who had gone to Paisland. Swordfish looked down and saw that he was human once more, but it flickered back to normal.

Swordfish looked up at Anthony and then remembered with horror what had happened. "You killed him." Swordfish said to Anthony. "…What?" Swordfish got to his feet and slowly walked over to Anthony. "You killed him. He had a good soul. He was a good dragon! AND YOU KILLED HIM! YOU RIPPED AWAY THE LIFE OF A LOST SOUL!" Swordfish screamed. The dragons in the cathedral began to wake up.

"Swordfish… are you talking about that Skywing?" Anthony asked quietly. "Go outside you noisy scoundrels!" Cried a voice from the other dragons.

It had started to rain. When the pair got outside the cathedral, Swordfish turned around to stare at Anthony. "I am. His name was Tornado. He was just lost. We could have saved him!" "He was dangerous. Someone like him who has been raised into those beliefs since he hatched from his egg is beyond saving." "Dragons can still change." Swordfish growled. Anthony said nothing.

"You know, I thought someone like you would understand." Anthony finally said. "It's hard enough to live with myself after I kill dragons, and now to know that they're humans beneath the scales…" "So it was easier to kill them before you knew?" Swordfish asked, still angry. "No!" Anthony cried. "But it adds a certain level of… immoral to it."

"So then how did you get yourself to kill Tornado?" Swordfish asked. Anthony paused, a sad look washing over his face. "Because… sometimes you have to kill. Sometimes, peace cannot be an option. Sometimes you must kill someone else not because they are evil, but because they have different ideas. And sometimes, those ideas will include your death. The Camaelists would see our species and society collapsed, our homes and families destroyed. Wars like this… are beyond peace. Good dragons on the Camaelist side simply believe this is the way to achieve peace. And so, sadly, we must kill each other, for one cannot live alongside the other."

Swordfish thought back to how Vine described her experience with General Stone. Was this any different? Was Tornado any better than Stone? Swordfish turned and walked away from Anthony, who stayed back, and watched him go.

Swordfish walked through the early afternoon and the rain, thinking about his conflict with Anthony and his dream. Where in his mind did the old dragon's voice keep coming from? Why did he always keep reassuring Swordfish that everything will be alright? Why did he keep telling him to remember who he was? And what did he mean by that? _Maybe it's a demon tricking me. Maybe its Cassriel. Maybe he's in my head. Maybe all of this is fake again._ He looked around at the late risers heading off to work. _All it would take is something to tip them off…_

"HEY! I KNOW THIS IS FAKE! NOBODY EXISTS BUT ME AND VINE!" Swordfish suddenly blurted out. The men and women on the street turned to look at him. Even a large Rainwing was awake and became visible from her camouflage. The rain began to fall harder.

"THAT'S RIGHT CASSRIEL! I'VE FIGURED IT OUT AGAIN!" Swordfish screamed. He turned and looked at the people on the sidewalk. "YOU'RE ALL FAKE!" He shouted. "YOU'RE ALL JUST PUPPETS OUT TO KILL ME!" A man holding a suitcase backed away. Swordfish looked down at a puddle and saw his exhausted, dirty face. He looked back up and the man backed further away.

"NOBODY EXISTS BUT ME! EVERYONE IS DEAD! I'M **ALONE!** " Swordfish screeched and then felt a hand on his back. He turned to see an old man with a long beard and a hat. "Hey there sea dragon." He said in a soft voice. "Why don't you follow me?" Swordfish stopped and timidly followed the man as he turned around and began walking down the street.

They eventually reached a church. Swordfish heard music coming from inside. "Luckily for us, you're small enough to fit within these doors." Said the old man. Swordfish followed the man inside. Within the church, lines of pews were almost empty, except for a few men and women sprinkled around in prayer. A lone player on an organ was up front, playing a tune on the old keys.

Swordfish examined the stained glass image on one of the windows above him. It depicted a man, who must have been Hamza, being crucified as men and women cried at his feet and two armored guards prodded him with spears. Swordfish swept to another window, which showed three women in the sky, each corresponding moon over their heads. Beneath them was a man and woman, who were surrounded by bodies of strange beings that could have only been the Angels which Seilbrenner had mentioned in the cavern.

"I always come here when I feel low, friend." Said the man. "It's a place of reassurance. To know that there is safety and good in this world." The organ player ended his song, and got up and walked off stage. Now, there was only the sound of the rain outside the church. "And you seem like someone who was in desperate need of safety and reassurance." Swordfish still shot paranoid glances around at the stained glass windows of the church.

"Why were you screaming, friend?" The man asked. Swordfish paused before speaking, which he did quietly. "I thought everyone was fake. It had happened to me before. I thought everyone was a lying puppet." "Ah. Then you and I are very alike." Said the man. "My name is Millard Steele. I used to have a full life, a wife, a daughter named Abigail, a job at the bank. But I became addicted to a plant called cannabis. I couldn't sustain myself after that. I got locked up for theft 40 years ago. I was in there for years. When I came out, I tried to insert myself back into my life, but my wife had remarried. My job was taken. My daughter had grown up. Everyone acted nice around me, but it didn't take me long to realize that they thought ill of me. They thought me a criminal, which I was. They acted as if I had died years ago, and I was another person. They were all fake to me in the end."

Swordfish didn't say anything. "Was it anything like that?" Millard asked. Swordfish said nothing. His mind was back in time again. "Yeah. A little." He said after a long pause.

"And so I fell into a depression. My life was looking bleak. Maybe like how you felt out there in the street. But I kept on believing. I learned to always keep pressing forward. To not give up. Persistence."

"Maybe you can learn that too. Believe in a bright future and the Goddesses. Pick yourself back up." Swordfish became lost in thought, staring up in the images on the glass. When he turned back to the old man, he was gone.

. . .

"General, did you have any suspicions of Daniel's true intentions?" Asked Wanderfalke, a Skywing who was head of the Dragons of Verlassen. "No. He was eccentric and was brilliantly insane at times but never did I expect he would actually work against us." Replied Henrik Solberg.

The Queen had summoned leaders from all across Old Monarchy to meet. Two of the Relics of Hamza, the Earring of Sola and the Dagger of Luna, sat in the center of the room on an ornate table. The topic of discussion, the events that transpired on Paisland and what to do next. Arnia had lost one of its best military leaders, and many soldiers, but now with the combined efforts of the allied countries of Old Monarchy, two out of three legendary powerful objects had been gathered, and the war could take a turn for the better.

"Well, we've ended up with these two things." Said General Dufort of Dieautel. "But at the cost of over one hundred of our finest." Said Queen Hecate. She looked solemn and tired. "And Black Star is surely in possession of the Necklace of Eclis?" President Okafor of the far south country of Berei said through her translator. "It would seem so. Unless Commander Meltzer is like Seilbrenner was, he wouldn't lie." Said Solberg.

"If Black Star is able to harness its power, we Praebelian countries won't be able to survive much longer. We can only hold off Camaelists for so long. If Black Star starts its attack from the North, the defenses of Ganjeel won't be able to defeat their armored tanks." Said Okafor.

"Uh… in case you all needed some good news, our blockade is successfully repelling Black Star's navy from Sudland ports." Said Otkhod General Sokolovsky. "Yes they are. Along with Praebelian families who fled eastward to escape Camaelists!" Accused King Anklaer of Piek. "I knew you would bring politics into this! Typical tactics!" Cried Sokolovsky. "Only because you refuse to admit your guilt, you bloody conservative!"

The tension of the room broke into angered conversation between the men, women, and dragons of Old Monarchy. "…Those aren't things a dragon would understand…" "…You know I thought this alliance would make you realize…" "… An Augustian is always an Augustian…" Henrik Solberg sighed and took a sip of water. Sunlight was streaming through the windows. If he ignored the dragons in the room, he could pretend that nothing had changed. Everything was still the same.

A large Mudwing got on his hind legs and flapped his wings fiercely, once, but it was loud enough to get everyone in the room to stop. "Everyone be quiet! Was it not one of the founding principles of Old Monarchy that we would put aside all other quarrels for the purpose of beating back extreme hatred?!" Queen Hecate berated. "We have these relics now. Now would be the worst possible time to begin to fracture. Victory is within sight. It's true we cannot unlock the power of Hamza without the necklace, but we have the power of healing and reparation on our side. We also have the rather horrifying power of the Dagger on our side."

The room fell silent. The revelation of what the dragons really were had been carefully avoided by everyone, but the Arnish queen had brought it up, and now the conversation had begun. There was no going back now. The dragons in the room looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Yes… well, about that." Said General Dufort. "One of our top psychologists, Dr. Pettigrew, studied one of the dragons who witnessed Seilbrenner's actions and Petrov's unfortunate death this morning. Azure, a Seawing, was plagued by horrible nightmares all throughout her sleep this morning. Each time, she awoke, and believed she was a human herself. It took something to snap her out of an almost hallucination-like state each time she awoke. She said she even looked like a human to herself. What Dr. Pettigrew believes is happening, is that by seeing Nikita Petrov turn into a dragon, it awakened the part of the brain left over from Azure's recent human ancestry. Whatever turned the people of Jeoul into dragons that night, built off of the brain of the human. Pettigrew calls these 'flashbacks' 'ancestral memories.'" Dufort said reading off of a paper.

"But what turned them into dragons?" Asked Wanderfalke. "Seilbrenner was able to only turn one person. What happened to all of the citizens of Jeoul?" "Was it Luna herself?" Wondered King Anklaer. "Perhaps it was Camael." Said Solberg.

Everyone turned to look at him. "Look, we know that Camael is not like any other dragon. Perhaps he transformed the people of Jeoul himself. All at once. He created an army for himself." "How would he do that?" Asked Sokolovsky. "The same way he apparently changes form and appears as different to different people and dragons. Perhaps… Camael is not of this earth."

The room fell silent. This was a theory some people believed, but was often dismissed, especially by the religious, who believed Camael was a test from the Goddesses. The ideas of alien life were controversial, especially in more traditional countries and kingdoms. But something about the comet that had been seen nearing Earth just days before Camael's appearance in Cheng was particularly unnerving.

"Let us turn our attention back to what this was all about." Said President Okafor. "What should we do with the relics that we have, and what are our plans to combat Black Star with the necklace?"

The dragon doors were suddenly opened by two Arnish guards, between them, a bruised and battered Icewing. Around her neck was a necklace with a pendant shaped like a knife. "I don't think Black Star has the Necklace of Eclis anymore." Said one of the guards.

The Icewing coughed and slowly took the necklace off her neck. Solberg realized with a jolt who it was. "Your majesty." The Icewing said weakly, bowing to Hecate, holding the necklace out for her. "Lieutenant!" Solberg said, standing up. The light coming through the window was reflecting off the Ice dragon's scales. "We thought you were killed!" "Not yet." Said Polar. "Oh, and Zane Jergens is dead."

. . .

Vine took another deep breath, turning her scales to blue again. She had no idea what they had been before. She quietly walked up behind Stone. He was still reading the book. She brought the sword upwards. She was going to strike at the weak spot on the tail. There was a good chance Stone was about to die.

Vine hesitated. She imagined Toucan's grief. She imagined Stone's friends, crying for their friend. But she also imagined life under his "love." She imagined becoming like Toucan, and she knew what she had to do.

"89q4ryn9q9w8dnkhouhqiunwd84iu48rikjaenakuf8423jnqf4ncma44ma." Toucan suddenly shrieked. The world began to dissolve around Vine until she was alone in darkness. "Come on Vine!" Cried an echo of a voice from somewhere in the darkness. He sounded playful. "It's fine! It just feels weird!"

Vine awoke from her dream in a cold sweat. She looked down at the palms of her hands. They felt cold. She got to her feet, but it felt weird. She turned to see Vulture standing behind her, his eyes dark and tired. "Vine. Snap out of it." He instantly said. "You're not human."

Vine blinked, and then a dizzying wave of nausea washed over her. She lay down and closed her eyes. When she got back up, it didn't feel weird anymore to have all four claws on the ground. She turned to say something to Vulture, who was still watching her with dark eyes. "What was…?" She began before Vulture interrupted her, as if he knew what she was going to ask. "It was like what happened after Nikita Petrov turned into a dragon. It happened to Rattlesnake and I too. We don't know about Swordfish and Blizzard, they are both gone."

Vine looked around at the dragons from the siege on Paisland that had slept in the cathedral. "What happened with the relics?" She asked. "We don't know." Rattlesnake answered. She looked tired and worn. She was leaning against a large pane of glass, looking out the window. "Meltzer handed them over to Solberg, and that's all we know. Black Star still has the Necklace of Eclis. All they really need to do is go back and alter history to stop the people of Jeoul from turning into dragons and dragons will cease to exist." "A world where we don't exist. Pyrrhia is never made. We and everything about us never happened." Vulture said grimly. "An alternate timeline." "Alternate." Vine repeated softly to herself.

"What about the Camaelists?" Vine asked. "Camael destroyed Paisland. The dragon armies retreated and we've gotten no word on what they're doing next." Vulture said. There was silence between the three as they all thought about what Vine, Swordfish, and Blizzard had thought of the other day. Camael was a demon.

. . .

Swordfish stood on a bridge, looking out over the river that passed through Buckombe. It was called the Medwell River. Boats with large, smoking smokestacks sailed down the river, passing underneath the bridge. Dragons flew above, avoiding the plumes of smoke that billowed up from the steamboats. "Hey." Said a familiar voice. Swordfish turned to see Blizzard descend from the sky and land next to him. "Are you okay?" She asked, the sun reflecting in her crystal-blue eyes.

"Yeah. I guess." Swordfish said glumly. "Can… I ask you a kind of personal question?" He asked. Blizzard looked troubled for a second. "I mean… I guess. Is it about Frost?" "No." Swordfish said, to Blizzard's relief. "How do you justify killing?" Swordfish asked. "You killed one of the assassins in Sainsbury, you've attacked more than I can count off the top of my head with the intent of killing them, including Wraith. Even if it's someone like Wraith, can you really justify their death? Do even the worst dragons, or people, deserve to die themselves?"

Blizzard was silent. "I mean… I'm not angry at you for it. You've saved our asses on multiple occasions." Swordfish said, using the word Michael had taught him. Blizzard laughed, and Swordfish saw her look away shyly, a look he had rarely seen on her face. "Come on. Frost might have given me this ability with her animus, but I'm not _that_ good."

"But… I just know that if I don't act, dragons that I care about might get hurt, or die. It's not something I enjoy doing, but I know that I'm the one that has to do it. It's out of my control. I know that sometimes the dragons, or people for that matter, that I might kill have families, friends, a life ahead of them and memories behind them. They might even be good dragons, but they're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Swordfish didn't speak for a long while, and neither did Blizzard. They just watched the Medwell as the street behind them crashed with the cacophony of carriages and dragons. "Anthony killed Tornado." Swordfish finally said quietly.

Blizzard didn't respond. Swordfish shot a quick glance at her and once again, noticed the beauty of the sun glimmering in her eyes. He turned his attention back to the river. A Seawing was dropping crates onto a boat, and two men were arranging them into place. One of the men was whistling a tune. Swordfish felt the end of Blizzard's cold tail touch his, and the two twined their tails around each other, silently watching the river.

. . .

Swordfish had begun walking back to the cathedral where the others were, alone again. He walked past a shivering old man in a blanket. Blizzard had flown off without a word after they had stopped twining their tails. Swordfish was hungry, as he had hardly eaten anything recently, when he ran into Anthony again.

"I was looking for you." Anthony said. "… Are you still mad at me?" Swordfish took a deep breath. "No. I guess not." "Good, and… I'm sorry that had to happen." Anthony said. "But we need to go somewhere private."

Anthony pulled Swordfish into an alleyway. He had an intense look in his eyes. "Vine told me about what you thought of Camael, and that reminded me." Swordfish saw Anthony was wearing a very familiar satchel. "If you could see that, it basically proves it. You can 'see through the lies.'" Swordfish suddenly realized what Anthony was talking about. Clearsight's prophecy to Rainfall.

"I know it's basically useless now, because that chest is over 5000 years in the future and Black Star has the necklace, but here it is." Anthony reached into his satchel and pulled out a small black, wooden box. He opened it and pulled out a piece of paper. It was folded up, and when unfolded, was big enough for a dragon.

 _12261326._ The eight-digit code. The code to the chest. Swordfish looked at Anthony with solemnness, and momentarily forgot about Tornado. _12261326._

"What's the significance of this number?" Swordfish asked. "I'm not sure." Anthony replied. "But when Rainfall entrusted it to me, on that first day of Jade Mountain Academy, he said to me that 'This is the number of this world. This lie.'"

. . .

The sun was setting on the city of Buckombe, and Swordfish was preparing for a celebration of sorts. They all were. The soldiers that had found the relics had been invited to a ceremony. Marie was wearing a dress, something Swordfish hadn't seen her wear. Anthony was dressed in a special suit as well.

They had left the cathedral, and were now in a courtyard outside the apartment building where Bai Zhou lived. Swordfish was wearing nothing special, except for a necklace Vine had found and Marie insisted Swordfish wear. It had this green stone in the middle of a golden ring. Swordfish couldn't help but think of the broken pieces of the necklace Abyss had given him that was still in the satchel that had regained its spot around his neck.

Swordfish looked around the courtyard. Blizzard was reluctantly putting on two golden earrings. Rattlesnake was talking with Michael, who had just come back from the bathroom. Vine and Vulture were playfully arguing who had decorated their eyepatch better. They still didn't know if Vine's injury was permanent.

The sudden arrival of Azure surprised them all. She had a look on her face that walked a line between shock and relief. "Hey uh, everyone." She said quietly. "Polar's alive."

Everyone fell silent. Azure didn't say anything, but she slowly scanned the faces of everyone there. "But… Wraith killed her." Vine said. "Right Blizzard?" "…Yeah." The Icewing responded. "I thought he did. He ordered his soldiers to burn the place down, and I couldn't hear or see the Lieutenant when I woke up from my unconsciousness."

"Well, I just saw her flying here." Azure said, and as if on cue, an Icewing began descending from the sky towards them. Michael looked up in amazement and joy. "Polar…" He said quietly.

When Polar landed, Michael, Marie, and Anthony ran up to the Icewing, and the four of them embraced. "I can't believe you're alive." Michael said, his voice trembling. "Same goes for you." Polar said. "When I saved you from the flames I thought you were dead for sure, but I had to chase after that necklace."

"You're the one who saved me?" Michael asked. "Yes." Polar said. "After Wraith tried to kill me, I rolled off the edge of the outcropping and managed to break the chains I was held in. I had to sit there on the mountain tending to my burns and injury from my fall, but once I felt good enough, I set out for Paisland. I knew that I had wasted time on the mountain and that the race for the relics would be on. I managed to get there in time to save you from the fire and then follow Zane Jergens onto the Black Star ships."

"Jergens had the necklace, and tried to kill Axton Lloyd, but it didn't work. Axton Lloyd just lived through the gunshots. He took the necklace, and made Jergens age forward until his body decomposed. I waited for that damn prophet to leave the cabin and then took the necklace from him." Polar said.

"Wait… we have the necklace?" Vulture asked. "Yes." Polar confirmed. "I gave it to the queen. That ceremony you're going to is probably where the Queen will try to contact the Moon Goddesses. The war ends tonight."

When the group had taken to the sky with the three humans riding on dragonback, Swordfish trailed behind the group, looking at the city below turn on its lights as the sun set. The war might end soon. And then, Swordfish and the others will have to make a choice. To either stay here, or go back home using the necklace. Swordfish knew that if he went back home, he would have to open Rainfall's chest. He would have to marry Typhoon, something he still hadn't mentioned to everyone else. He would have to face Adnachiel again, who hadn't shown up once since Swordfish came here. He would have to deal with replacing the other him who died. He would have to go back to the Darkists.

"Swordfish." Said Rattlesnake, who was now flying beside him. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts he hadn't noticed her go back to him. "Uh… yes?" He responded nervously, scared she was going to start crying again. "When I was in that dark place in the cavern. When I was a human. You woke me up, and I was happy to see you."

Swordfish remembered waking her up. She had put her talon on his face. "I realized that even if you aren't the one I knew, you're still Swordfish, and I still know you. I'd rather have you, even if it's a little strange, than not have you. You're just… a different dragon that's all. I still remember the other you. He was nice."

"Does this mean… you aren't mad at me anymore?" Swordfish asked. "I guess not." Rattlesnake responded. Swordfish had to keep himself from smiling like an idiot.

. . .

Cassriel watched from the shadows as the Seawing dragonets performed their useless tasks to try and find an animus. Cassriel already knew that none of them would be animus dragons, yet he still watched. It was a rare occasion to stumble across the Talons of Power ceremony. The animus magic always had perplexed Cassriel. Each world had a different way it had come about. In some worlds, it didn't exist at all.

But after a long while of wandering Cicada Hive, tracking and killing a Silkwing named Polyphemus who Cassriel had suspected of being an informant, Cassriel was glad to relax and just watch the intriguing ceremony.

A snotty-looking dragonet covered in jewelry told her coconut to move, but nothing happened. The dragonet and the slimy dragon who had told her to move the fruit both looked disappointed. But as the slimy dragon, who was named Whirlpool, moved to the next dragonet, Cassriel felt a sense of worry wash over him.

Was it the dragonet with a silver chain around his neck and an aura of danger that made Cassriel uncomfortable? Or was it the older princess who seemed like she was hiding something who Cassriel had been examining earlier? Or was it that strange dragon in the crowd of onlookers that kept sending glances in Cassriel's direction?

Cassriel was sure he could not be seen, but it was hard to tell what new trick _they_ would have next. Cassriel didn't move as the strange Seawing turned and walked toward him.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "Same goes for you, Nestorats." Cassriel said, recognizing her voice. "I'm deciding what the most likely escape route to one of the other continents will be." She said. "Remember Plan B? We need to minimize the amount of Pyrrhians who will escape their continent, and this world seems very much like our problematic world."

"Ah. Yes." Cassriel said. "Well, I was just observing the ceremony there, you can never be too careful with animus dragons." Nestorats looked skeptical. "What is your obsession with that stuff?" She asked. "Oh, just something that happened to me a long time ago." Cassriel responded, trying to say as little as he could about the events that transpired thousands of years ago.

"Well, lucky for you, I found something you might like." Nestorats said. She led Cassriel to the other end of Queen Lagoon's old Island Palace and onto a wooden dock. "Apparently, right here is where Indigo killed Albatross. Well, really it was Fathom, but you know." Nestorats said.

Cassriel didn't really care about the history of animus magic, just how it worked. But before he could say something, he saw something move behind Nestorats. "Nestorats, behind you." He said, and out from one of the tunnels walked three dragons, and two humans, all donning white hoods.

One of the humans instantly aimed what looked like an assault rifle at Nestorats and began to fire. Nestorats created a wall of fire which absorbed the bullets, and then pushed it towards the man. The man was quickly snatched up by a Nightwing, who yelled at one of the other dragons, a Silkwing this time.

The Silkwing descended from the sky and began to let fire drop from her wrists. A Flamesilk. Cassriel dodged the fire and summoned the Vines of Rose. The long, tentacle-like arms reached up from the wooden floor and began to swipe at the Flamesilk.

The other human, a woman this time, suddenly fired something at Cassriel, who realized with a jolt that it was a Kiboten dragon snare. He turned and looked at the woman to see that she was wearing something else beneath the white hood. An ancient Old Monarchy uniform.

 _Damn this resistance! Why do they always show up at the least convenient times! And why do they always have such a strange mix of members?_

The third dragon, this time from a tribe Cassriel couldn't even recognize, aimed a mobile rifle at Nestorats and fired. She shrieked as the bullet pierced through her. The shot was loud, loud enough so that at the other end of the palace, Torrent of the Seawings glanced in the direction of the battle, wondering what that noise was.

 **Sorry about the delay. Soon enough we will be back on schedule. Prepare for something huge next chapter. Thank you for all the positive reviews.**


	43. Chapter 38: Scorching

**Authors Warning: This chapter is dark, and sets the tone for the rest of the story. You have been warned. Follow the rating. T means 13+.**

" **War does not determine who is right, only who is left." –Bertrand Russel, British philosopher.**

Frog shook from the terror. He was packed into the tight room with about 10 other dragons. He was the smallest one there.

He had snuck out of the Camaelist base to try and find his mother, despite orders from his father, Lizard. He had only barely gotten past the small mountain range that concealed the base from the outside when he was easily captured by men and women in uniform, who spoke other languages.

He had been taken down to somewhere. Frog didn't know where he was, or how far he had traveled, but now he was in a place where dragons were kept and weren't allowed to leave. He had been able to sleep there for a few days, and performed physical labor during the daylight. But this morning, a man with more badges on his uniform than the guards had come through, and now the dragons were being put in rooms.

Frog was silent as the dragons in the room seemed to stare at nothing, and never look away. He was the only dragonet. "Hey, what's happening?" He asked the older dragons. A Grasswing started to cry as soon as Frog spoke.

A large Sandwing began to throw himself at the metal doorway, which had been locked shut. "YOU COWARDS!" He shouted through it as he rammed into the reinforced metal. "YOU DAMN KILLERS!" He rammed against it once more, and made a dent in the metal.

Frog looked up as he heard a switch-like noise, and then a blast of heat attacked the dragons in the room. The older dragons began to scream and yell. Frog just sat there as the heat became worse, and worse, and worse.

He didn't know what was going on. He was simply too young. All he knew was that it was getting really, really hot.

The Grasswing who had cried was the first to drop as the scales of the dragons began to burn. Frog screamed. The heat didn't relent. Frog fell to the ground as it consumed him, and the dragons began to crumple and cease, and the heat of humanity's hate burned and held superiority over the dragons.

. . .

Swordfish was silent as the relics were brought out to the ornate wooden cross that had been placed in the center of the grand hall of the palace. He was sitting in a section that had the other soldiers that had found the relics. The whole room was filled with nervous chattering. Humans and dragons lined the entire great hall. Swordfish just focused on the cross with the ring around it. There was a symbol within the circle that looked like two triangles on top of each other, pointing in different directions to make a star. Apparently, this symbol within the ring was called a "Star of the Goddesses."

Swordfish couldn't help but wonder if Polar had been correct all that time ago, when she said that the Power of Hamza was better left alone. But now, it seemed like she didn't care as much. Maybe she had realized that there was no other way Old Monarchy could win the war.

The Queen walked out of a corridor, surrounded by royal guards, and behind her walked a priest, and behind him, three highly decorated soldiers, each carrying the relics on ornate pillows. As the entourage of Arnish royalty, including Hecate's mother, son, and daughter, walked through, the crowd fell silent.

As the soldiers stepped into the ring, one by one, the relics flew off of the pillows and began revolving around the cross, just as they had done in the cavern. Queen Hecate took off her crown and stepped into one of the arms of the star inside the ring. She knelt, and Swordfish noted how humble she looked for a queen.

The priest took his place at a podium, and took out an old and worn book. An ancient copy of The Holy Words. You could have cut the tension with a knife. The priest cleared his throat. He looked worried.

"O diva, celebrate faventes nobiscum et divinam potentiam tuam!" He said in his accented, ancient, papery voice. The relics began to revolve faster. "Congregem fructus descensu rursum hominem de paradiso unde pater tuus!" Hecate took a deep breath. Swordfish felt Blizzard nervously shift in her seat, and close her eyes tight. "Ipsi enim scitis quod ius peccandi pacem super terram!" Swordfish felt a chill go down his spine. "Adducere descendit pluvia novae prophetam!"

With the last word, the cross glowed with a bright, white light, and then burst into purple flames. The relics were spinning so fast now, they looked like one object. A ring. A halo. Queen Hecate screamed as her eyes glowed with the same purple light, light like the sunlight coming through the leaf windows of the Jade Mountain library.

The palace began to tremble, and the onlookers began pouring out of the great hall and into the courtyard, where shouting could be heard. Swordfish didn't need to go outside to know what was happening. He could see out one of the many, large windows, and had a pretty good view of the night sky.

There was no longer one singular moon. Two others had joined it. Luna had been reunited with her sisters. " _Three… moons…"_ Vulture said under his breath. Anthony looked at the sight with a mixture of amazement and horror.

Some people tried to rush to the Queen, but the royal guards blocked their path. "We mustn't interfere with the ceremony!" Cried the priest. "Literally only the Goddesses know what will happen!" Swordfish stared at the Queen, and suddenly found himself thinking about Coral, and her reported plan to use Anemone to win the war. He shuddered, imagining what would happen if Coral had this kind of power. Actually, ANY of the Pyrrhian queens getting this kind of power would be a horrible event for everyone.

Swordfish looked up at the two new moons. All three Goddesses were watching now. Swordfish thought back to Seilbrenner's speech in the cavern. " _What if we are the ants?"_ The people and dragons of the world were now being watched by something much larger, and much more powerful than them, just like ants being watched by a boy. The power to crush them all, or let them live.

A bolt of lightning suddenly shot out of the top of the cross, and blasted a hole through the roof of the palace. The onlookers shrieked as the piece of ceiling fell to the ground just beyond the Star of the Goddesses.

And then, three apparitions descended from the air above the Star. Three arms. Not quite dragon, not quite human. Each had a symbol on their hand. The Goddesses themselves were reaching down from the heavens. The onlookers were silenced. Swordfish couldn't feel his own head. He felt like he was a marionette puppet on strings, and up until now, he had been animated and moving, but now the puppeteer from above was yanking on the string, and pulling him back up.

Blizzard fell to the ground started violently convulsing as everyone else rose and stood, their eyes glued to the arms from above. Swordfish wanted to help Blizzard, but he couldn't. His body was no longer his own.

The three arms reached down to Hecate and touched her head. A strange, screaming noise ripped through the silence. Swordfish couldn't feel his own thoughts. He was nothing. He was an ant, a puppet, nothing. These god-like beings were all.

And then it ended. The three arms retracted as fast as they had come down, and then everyone was back. Blizzard quickly stood up, and Hecate fell to the ground. The royal guard rushed to her side, but she assured them she was fine. "Your majesty," Asked the priest. "How do you feel?"

"Alright… I guess." Hecate said. Her voice sounded strained. "I feel this… weird tingle in my hands…" Swordfish looked outside. The three moons were there. Swordfish suddenly found it strange, and even stranger that this seemed unnatural, despite the fact Swordfish had grown up with three moons. "So… this is how… it happened." Rattlesnake said in a whisper. Vine looked up at the moons, and Swordfish saw their light reflect in her eyes.

"What is it Hecate?" Asked Solberg. "What is the Power of Hamza?" Hecate got to her feet, and looked at the relics that were laying on the ground around the cross, which was now blackened and burned. Hecate pointed at the necklace. She shut her eyes, and the necklace suddenly sprung up, like someone invisible had picked it up, and it gently floated over to Hecate's outstretched hand. She grabbed the necklace and opened her eyes.

Vulture made a noise like a sharp inhale. The rest of the room gasped in awe. Swordfish watched in amazement and horror. He had realized what this was, and a bead of sweat trickled down his face.

"Earring, come to me." Hecate said, and the Earring of Sola did the same thing the necklace did. "…Is that…" Vine began in a whisper, but stopped. "…Animus…" Blizzard whispered in awe. Swordfish blinked multiple times. The Power of Hamza… was animus. Not only was this the arrival of the second and third moons, but it was also the creation of what was known back in Pyrrhia as animus magic.

"Is that all it can do?" Asked a voice with an Otkhod accent from the crowd. "No, Sokolovsky." Hecate said. "I can enchant anything I want to do whatever I want… I know this sounds weird, but it's like… there's a voice telling me how to use it." "Hamza…" Muttered the crowd in awe. "…Is this animus magic?" Marie asked. "Yes…" Vulture answered in a hushed voice. "I always wondered about it… I thought it came from Icewings…" "It did." Blizzard said. "At least… that's how it came to Pyrrhia."

Vine suddenly leapt to her feet and took flight. "Your majesty!" She cried. "Hey! Vine!" Swordfish said harshly. "That's… animus! It was where we were! If you use it too much… you go insane! You kill!" Vine cried again. "What… are you…?" Asked Hecate, furrowing her brow and looking up at the dragonets with concern.

"Your majesty." Vulture said. "What she's trying to say is that where we come from, the future, as you most likely heard, that power already exists. It's called animus magic, and if you use it too much, you go insane, and start killing everyone."

Silence fell over the great hall again, but it quickly broke into muttering. Swordfish looked as a man in a blanket pushed through the crowds. Swordfish recognized him as the old man he had seen earlier before meeting Anthony. Swordfish watched him curiously as Vulture tried to explain animus magic to the crowd.

"It's passed down through the bloodlines." Vulture said. "So if Hecate has a child, he or she will have the power?" Asked somebody. "Maybe!" Vulture cried. Swordfish was still watching the man. He was making a beeline for the cross… no… He was going straight for Hecate. "Hey…" Swordfish said, pointing down towards the man. Michael turned and looked as well. "Wait… what is a dirty man like him doing here? How did he get past the guards?" Swordfish turned and looked at one of the posted guards at the entrance to the great hall. He was on the ground, dead, his torso blackened and burned. Nobody had noticed, they were so wrapped up in what was happening.

"Hey!" Michael yelled as loud as he could, pointing to the man. Swordfish heard Blizzard inhale sharply behind him, and then grab his wing and yank him away. "We need to go. Now." She said. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was about to vomit. "What is it?" Rattlesnake asked. "I… he… We need to run! NOW!"

Swordfish turned and began to run as he heard shouting and yelling, and then a gunshot, and then a high-pitched noise. Swordfish was momentarily reminded of his horror surrounding that noise. The noise of a Demon approaching. And then the Great Hall exploded as Camael transformed out of his disguise and into his full size.

. . .

Camael rose to full height above the palace walls. The explosion destroying the very foundation of the building. The ringing sound that accompanied a Demon's transformation echoed throughout the entire city. Fire exploded outward and the entire palace vicinity burst into flames. The smoke rose into the air in a mushroom shape. People and dragons disappeared before their shadows did. The plan was set in motion. This was the signal to the Camaelist soldiers.

All across the area, dragons who had been posing as Old Monarchy dragons with stolen armbands suddenly shed the armbands and attacked. It was part of the plan to strike at the heart. Camael had gotten the information he needed from the Demon King, and now it was time to kill off Old Monarchy once and for all. Humanity would be destroyed now.

General Solberg woke up. He was pinned underneath a large panel of wood. Everything hurt, but he was too awestruck by what had happened around him to care. The Great Hall was destroyed. As Camael walked away, Solberg saw the bodies. Sokolovsky, Okafor, Wanderfalke. Their bodies around him were blackened and burned. Except Meltzer, who had been impaled by a beam. His blood leaked onto the floor. "…General…" He said weakly, and then choked on what Solberg presumed to be his own blood. His arm went limp.

The royal family and the priest had been incinerated almost instantly. Solberg had no idea where the queen was, or if she was even alive. Solberg couldn't see the cross anymore. The relics could have been destroyed. The smoke began to get thicker, and Solberg began coughing. He couldn't move. He couldn't move the panel keeping him down.

"General!" Called a voice from beyond the smoke. Solberg looked up to see two dragons flying towards him. A Skywing and a Rockwing. But Solberg's hope was crushed when the Rockwing suddenly spun around and slashed the Skywing's throat open. He tore off his armband and began flying towards the general, smoke beginning to pour out of his mouth. He landed nearby Solberg, who looked up at the large dragon with horror.

A series of gunshots suddenly pierced through the terror, and the Rockwing was hit with bullets from all sides. A group of Dieautish soldiers ran up to Solberg while others ran towards the dead dragon. "Tout est clair! Sauvez le général et partez!" Yelled a soldier. They began lifting the wooden panel and helping the old man out of the pile of rubble he was in. "Solberg…" Said the voice of Commander Dufort. Solberg looked up at the man. "They're all dead." Solberg said. Dufort looked at the horrific scene of the various personnel who were now dead, who had just been in the meeting earlier that day.

. . .

Suzu Tanaka's home village was in ruins. She had been allowed to return home after the failure at Paisland, but Camaelists had attacked her village. The homes were destroyed, and the bodies of the victims were laying around, burned and blackened.

Suzu had tears in her eyes. She already assumed the worst, but she couldn't bear to think about it. She kept thinking every noise was Angela calling out for her, seeing her and telling Suzu she was alright, and being more concerned about her than herself.

But when she rounded a corner. Her eyes widened. Everything she fought for, everything she had done for a happy ending suddenly descended down from the sky and plummeted into her soul. All the dragons she had hurt. All the people. She believed it was for the greater good. But now that she saw what had been done, she realized that it had all been for nothing, because she wasn't even there to stop it in the end.

Suzu Tanaka fell to her knees, letting her rifle slip off her shoulder and onto the ground. It hit the ground with a clank. Angela Weis was headless and laying in the grass as the ravens who were eating the body flew away.

 _So… this is what fighting does… nothing. If I did what I did or if I didn't, it wouldn't have mattered. This would have happened anyway. Even if I was here, and not out there… I would have been unarmed… Angela would die anyway…_

Suzu turned and looked at the rifle. She had taken so many innocent souls, hadn't she? Wouldn't it be a good thing to take a guilty one this time? Wouldn't it be nice?

. . .

Swordfish inhaled and immediately began coughing from inhaling dust. "Swordfish!" Cried a voice. Swordfish was turned over by Rattlesnake. She was scratched up and had black soot on her face. "Three moons… what happened?" Swordfish groaned, getting to his feet, but all it took was one look at the destruction around him, and he remembered.

"Oh…" Swordfish said, and turned and looked around. It seemed like the whole city was on fire, which it might have been. Everyone Swordfish had been watching the ceremony with was gathered behind a chunk of building that had fallen. Blizzard stood at the edge, peeking around a corner. The soot and smoke dirtying her white scales.

"Camael." She said. "He is a Demon. He transformed right in the middle of the palace." A roar suddenly shook the ground. "This will be the end of Arnia." Marie said with dread seeping from her voice.

"Damn it! I can't see anything!" Blizzard said. "I have no idea who's alive. The smoke is too thick." "What if Hecate died?" Vine worried. "Then so be it!" Polar barked. "Arnia can live without a queen." Polar had somehow gotten her claws on a mobile rifle, and was loading it as she spoke. "That explosion should have alerted every Old Monarchy soldier kilometers from here, and with the amount of leaders and other important figures that gathered here for the relics meeting, there will be plenty of reinforcements coming. Buckombe isn't going down without a fight."

"Wait!" Should we keep our armbands on, or take them off?" Vulture asked. "Why would we do that?" Azure asked, and Vulture pointed up to the sky. Up above the smoke, Swordfish could see the shapes of dragons fighting. Camaelist soldiers had arrived with Camael.

"Well, if you take them off, you'll look like enemies to your own side, but Camaelists won't attack you. If you keep them on, nothing changes." Anthony said. "We keep them on." Polar said. "Once the reinforcements come, the battle will turn in Old Monarchy's favor, and we don't want to get killed by own forces. We keep them on." Polar paused. "And that's an order. Now come on. Let's use the smoke while it's here to go get weapons."

"But… we don't know what's in there." Vulture said, gesturing to the thick smoke with his wing. "Well, if we just stay here, we'll eventually get caught." Rattlesnake snapped. "Now is not the time to get scared, Vulture." Swordfish kept staring at the smoke. He could only see fire through the smog. Everything was on fire. A word suddenly appeared in Swordfish's head. _Scorching._

 _If this is the end of the world… If everything about this world is about to come tumbling down… What's the point in going? Why shouldn't I just stay here?_ " _I learned to always keep pressing forward. To not give up. Persistence."_ Millard Steele's advice echoed through Swordfish's mind. If he gave up, he wouldn't be able to open that chest and find out what the world was hiding from him.

Swordfish opened his wings and took flight. He heard Polar behind him, and everyone else behind her, with Anthony, Marie, and Michael riding dragonback. "Let me get in front." Polar said. "You may have the night vision, but I have the gun." Swordfish hadn't even thought about his night vision. He forgot just how dark it must have been for everyone else. "Just… tell me if you see anything." Polar said, and for the first time, Swordfish heard something like fear in her voice.

The group set out for the police station that Polar said had weapons hidden in it. Swordfish looked around through the smoke at objects as they got closer. He saw the burned corpses of a mother holding her two children. A Camaelist soldier lying dead on the street. A collapsed apartment building, which Swordfish could only imagine was filled with ex-residents. Death surrounded them inside the smoke.

Vine was the first one to start coughing, and it soon began to spread to everyone. "Take a right down this street and it should be on our left." Polar said to Swordfish. "Why do we need weapons?" Vine asked. "If the Camaelists fight without weapons, and back on Pyrrhia you could fight without weapons, what's the point in getting them?" "If you have something the Camaelists don't, the battle turns in your favor." Michael responded.

The three humans were left off at the door, and the dragons entered through the roof. Another explosion shook the ground. Swordfish grabbed onto the wall for safety. A large mirror hung on one of the walls, and Swordfish turned to look at himself.

His eyes looked dark and sunken. He looked weak, which he was. Swordfish had not been in contact with water except for drinking for days. His face was covered in soot and ash, and he had scratches on him from the debris from the explosion. Looking at himself sent a shiver down his spine. He didn't look like himself. The scariest thing about it was the shaking of his pupils. Staring into them, Swordfish found himself beginning to tremble. He looked down, and then back up. A human was staring back at him. Black hair and green eyes.

Swordfish reeled away from the mirror and got ahold of himself. His sudden scraping of claws on the floor made Blizzard turn around and look at him. "What's wrong?" She asked, and Swordfish realized that she looked dirty and tired too. All of them did. Swordfish just hadn't examined himself in so long, he hadn't realized he looked pretty awful.

"The nightmares… will they ever stop?" He asked rhetorically. They all knew what he was talking about. The grotesque transformation of Nikita Petrov had been engraved in their minds. Another explosion suddenly shook the building, and this time, a roar accompanied it.

"The Camaelists and Black Star both think they are above the other race. They are both unaware that dragons and humans are one and the same." Vulture said with something like a chuckle. "…hahahaha…"

Polar was the only one there that hadn't witnessed the horrific use of the Dagger of Luna. She had only heard the story from everyone else. She said nothing.

They finally came across a dark room. Rattlesnake grabbed a nearby oil lamp and lit it with her breath. The room was filled with weapons. Anthony, Marie, and Michael were just seconds behind them, quickly running up the creaky wooden stairs.

Swordfish removed his satchel and quickly equipped dual rifles to his forearms, strapping the belts as tight as he could around his scales. Swordfish saw Blizzard digging out another pair of those bladed gauntlets out of a wooden crate. When everyone had gotten something that would increase their chance of survival, Polar glanced around the room. "Alright, the goal is simple. We take back the palace, or what's left of it. Reinforcements should be arriving soon." "What do we do about Camael?" Swordfish asked. "Simple. We kill him, or he kills us." Polar responded. "I… don't think it will be that easy." Blizzard said darkly. "He's a Demon. They're not exactly something we can just shoot." "A what?" Azure asked, and Swordfish realized she had no idea what a Demon was.

"Well… let's just say Camael isn't really a dragon." Vulture said grimly. "We can explain later." After a second of uneasy silence, another rumble shook the room. "We need to go." Blizzard said, and the soldiers ran out of the room, quickly leaving the building. When Swordfish ran past the mirror again, he quickly glanced at his reflection. _Still me._

When the dragons got to the roof, the smoke had begun to clear, and they could see the battle raging around them. Three moons glaring through the smog above. Dragon fought dragon, sometimes with humans on their backs. Anti-dragon artillery on the roofs of buildings fired round after round. Platoons of soldiers marched on the ground and civilians, human and dragon alike, escaped the carnage together.

Dead bodies were scattered among the city streets. Buildings had been reduced to rubble and fires raged. The massive shape of Camael towered over it all, the monstrous dragon slowly marching through the church spires, building tops, and factory smokestacks. As the mist of the smoke enveloped Buckombe and the sound of roaring, screaming, gunshots, and explosions echoed through it, Swordfish took in a deep breath and felt the horror surround him. For some reason, it didn't scare him in that moment. It felt like something Swordfish couldn't describe. Almost something like exacting revenge. Now, everyone was experiencing that kind of psyche-destroying horror. It wasn't just him. Everyone here was facing the destruction of their world as they knew it. Swordfish's fear was no longer just his own.

The dragons ascended into the sky, and Swordfish's strange feeling turned once more back into fear. He felt like he was going to vomit. The sky was beginning to turn orange with the fire.

As the dragons flew back towards the center of Buckombe, Polar shot at a dragon who leapt out of the smoke. She had fast reaction time, and had quickly flicked towards the sound of the attacker and fired without a second thought. It had ended up being an Aniwing dragonet who didn't look older than three. She had a bullet hole through her skull and a look of fear plastered on her bloodied face. She had been forced into Camaelism, and she had died for it. If Polar felt bad about killing her, she did a good job of concealing it. "Come on, let's go. We can't ponder it for too long." She said as Rattlesnake stared into the dragonet's eyes. Much to Swordfish's surprise, Vine didn't seem as upset by it as Rattlesnake did. She just looked at the dragonet's face solemnly for a moment.

"It's horrible what they do." Michael said quietly. "Dragons like that are too young to form an opinion for themselves, and so they end up dying for their parents' agenda."

"OVER HERE!" Cried a voice. It was another squad of Old Monarchy soldiers. They beckoned the group towards them. Swordfish looked around. More squadrons were flying in the same direction. Polar led the group towards the other soldiers. Swordfish looked down. Human soldiers were running down the streets towards the palace as well. The reinforcements had come.

They met on the roof of a factory. "Over here!" Called a voice. As the dragons turned a corner they saw General Solberg on the ground, leaning against a smokestack. He had long burns down his body and blood was coming out of his mouth. His arm was wrapped in bandages. He had one eye open. "You all survived." He said, amazed. "I thought everyone there… was dead." "We were close enough to one of the exit halls to run away." Blizzard said.

As more dragons landed on the roof, and more people ascended the staircases to the roof, Commander Dufort of Dieautel, and King Anklaer of Piek stood up and addressed the crowd. "We only have one plan." Dufort said. "We must kill Camael. If we fail, we die, and Old Monarchy will begin to collapse." "But how do we kill him?" Asked a voice from the crowd. "He burns everything that gets near him!"

"Well… we have to try!" Cried Anklaer. "We must try. Is it not better to go out fighting than to sit back and get killed without pushing back?" "But that's… suicide!" Yelled another voice, fear trembling through her voice. "Are you telling us to kill ourselves?" " _No no no no… there has to be a better way…"_ Vulture muttered. " _Even if we can't kill him… is there a way to imprison him?"_

Camael suddenly roared. The soldiers turned around to see what looked like a large two-pronged lance lift into the air. It looked like it was made out of stone. The lance aimed at Camael's heart, and burst forward at high speed, making a beeline straight for the heart. It was going for the kill.

Camael swiped at the lance with his claw, but it still sunk into his arm. He roared and sent fire raining down on the city. "TAKE COVER!" Cried a voice. Swordfish slammed his back to one of the smokestacks as the fire went sailing over his head. The flames landed on the street, setting a tree ablaze. A nearby roar suddenly startled Swordfish. A Seawing landed on the roof opposite the Old Monarchy forces. He was large. He saw the soldiers gathered on the roof and turned to fly away and alert his superiors, or possibly Camael, when he suddenly stopped.

The soldiers watched in horror as the Seawing suddenly froze. He began to scream, but he stopped. It was weird, like someone had plugged up his mouth one second after he began screaming. He fell down, and his body fell off the roof. He landed on the street with a loud bone-breaking sound.

Where he had been standing on the roof, now sat a woman in a torn and burned white dress. She had scratches and burn marks down her face, but she was alive. "Hecate!" Cried a voice, and a cheer went up from the soldiers, especially the Arnish ones.

A dragon flew over to her and took her over to the soldiers. "Did you kill that Seawing without even touching him?" A soldier asked, amazed. "Yes." Hecate replied. "The Power of Hamza allows me to make anything do whatever I tell it to… even living things." "Can you bring the dead back to life?" Asked a Nightwing. "I'm not sure…" Hecate said quietly. "I haven't thought about that. I've only had the powers for…" "Is that why Sola and Eclis are here?" Asked a voice. "Yes." Hecate said.

Hecate told the soldiers what had happened. Camael had snuck into the ceremony where she inherited the Power of Hamza. He transformed and destroyed everything, including the rest of the royal family. Hecate had formed a kind of protective shell around herself just in time, enchanting the floor around her into an unbreakable shield. She had come out and saw the devastation, and tried to kill Camael by enchanting part of a building to turn into a weapon to kill Camael. "That lance was yours?" Asked Dufort. "Yes. But in order for me to kill Camael, he can't see it coming. It needs to go into the heart." "Is it heat resistant?" Croaked Solberg. "Yes." Hecate said, sadly looking at Solberg. "Wait… let me try…" Hecate walked over to the general and bent down. Solberg coughed up blood, which stained Hecate's burned dress. "I'm sorry… your majesty…" He said weakly. "Enchant this man's wounds to heal themselves painlessly." Hecate said with urgency.

Solberg gasped as his wounds began to heal. The crowd watched with awe, but their moment of amazement was interrupted by the anti-dragon artillery suddenly firing. With a roar, a Grasswing fell out of the sky, her stomach peppered with holes.

"Alright…" Solberg said, standing up. "I need all strategists. We're going to find a way to take down Camael." A few humans and dragons began walking towards the general. "Where's that Skywing from the future who figured out how to destroy the tanks?" Asked Solberg. Vulture inhaled sharply and began shrinking back, hiding behind the large shape of Polar, who dragged him out and pushed him forward. "He's here, general." She said. Vulture didn't move, but Rattlesnake gave him a gentle push forward, and he slowly made his way up to the general.

"Now… he proves himself useful. He always had it in him." Polar said to Michael quietly. Swordfish looked up at Vulture who kept sending nervous glances back at Swordfish and the others. The soldiers fell silent as the strategists talked in a hush. Vine was invited by some other Rainwings to do an invisible patrol of the area. " _Swordfish."_ Anthony said in a whisper. He looked scared. " _What happened to your satchel? The one with the code in it?"_

Swordfish made a small noise of horror when he realized he had left it back at the police station. _Nonononononono._ " _We'll just go back and get it after the general announces the plan._ " Anthony said.

Up by the general, Vulture and Solberg were talking, and it seemed like everyone else was listening. The general stepped out next to Hecate in front of the crowd and everyone fell silent. "All dragons will carry humans to all nearby buildings with large smokestacks. The humans will go and start the furnaces, and the dragons will separate into six groups and go above Mullberry Street, and use their wings to blow as much smoke as they can in the direction of Camael. Some dragonback soldiers will protect the dragons from Camaelist soldiers. Once Camael is successfully blinded, Hecate will create another lance and strike him while he's blind. We will have to move fast, or Camael may use those wings of his to fly away, or blow the smoke away. We will station a mind-reading Nightwing at every group of dragons blowing smoke. Once everyone's smoke has reached Camael, everyone must think as loud as they can, 'smoke ready.' Each Nightwing will hear this message and relay it to the others. Once all groups have gave the message, a Nightwing with Hecate will tell her to fire the lance."

The crowd muttered anxiously. It was a risky plan. It wasn't guaranteed to work. But there was no better plan. Hecate's magic was their best bet, and they needed to blind Camael for it to work. Swordfish began to worry about Hecate's soul, but apparently, Rattlesnake was too. "Your majesty!" She suddenly called. "Do you feel cold at all? Shivers going down your spine?" "No." Hecate replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Alright, let's go!" Said Dufort. "OLD MONARCHY FOREVER!" Cried Solberg, and the soldiers repeated the cry, but it was just a cry. A cry that echoed and died in the destruction of the night.

. . .

Brittaney Colens held back a cry. She entered her apartment late at night to find Calvin Abrams, head of the Black Star police, and six police, each with pistols aimed at her chest. "I have to say I'm surprised Brittaney." Abrams said, his voice slithering through the silent apartment like a snake. "You have always done such a good job of silencing the right people. But now, not only is a group that still supports Jergens still making noise, but the Prophet tells me that you have been giving them money for a while now." "What… who told him that?" Brittaney asked desperately. "It wasn't me! It was Gordon Thessali! I spoke with the Prophet this morning! He told me to silence him!" "Well, Axton Lloyd does not lie." Abrams hissed. "So why are you accusing him of doing exactly that?"

"Because I'm not the one you should be cornering! I sent my men to shut up everyone connected to Thessali right after my meeting! Are you sure you didn't hear incorrectly?" Brittaney pleaded, beginning to sweat. The police hadn't taken their pistols off her. "'Brittaney Colens, our very own head of press, has faked the silencing of a group that supported Jergens overthrowing me by blaming Gordon Thessali. Not only that, she has been funding them behind our backs, according to our top detectives.'" Abrams said. "That is what he told me."

Brittaney Colens said nothing. She looked at the ground. _Axton Lloyd was doing this on purpose. He was eliminating his cabinet members by tricking them into killing each other._ And then her loyalty was gone. The treasonous side of her brain took control. "So, answer me truthfully, Brittaney. Are you still loyal to humanity? To Black Star?" Brittaney picked her head up and looked at Calvin Abrams, smiling. "How long until they come for you, Calvin? Now you answer me truthfully, Calvin. Are you?"

Calvin Abrams lifted his arm and gave the signal to fire. All six pistols shot at the same time. Brittaney's blood spattered onto the wall behind her from different directions. She died, smiling. "Sorry, I couldn't stand hearing the devil speak anymore." Abrams said gruffly, but with a little anxiety. What if she had been right? What if he wouldn't survive tonight?

. . .

Swordfish flew with Anthony on his back. The smoke had really began to clear up since Camael appeared. His large shape in the distance was still walking forward, and Swordfish couldn't help but wonder about the other soldiers on the other side of Camael, who were probably getting slaughtered.

"Right here." Anthony said as Swordfish made a turn down a side street. "Hey! Where are you going?" Asked Vine. "I forgot my satchel at the police station!" Swordfish called. "I'll be right back!" Swordfish turned a corner and the army of soldiers flew out of sight. "Do they know I gave you the code yet?" Anthony asked. "No… I haven't told them yet." Swordfish replied guiltily. "Why not?" Anthony asked, surprised. "Because one day someone told me, 'only trust those you are absolutely sure you can.'"

"Do you not trust them?" Anthony asked. "Aren't they your friends?" "They are." Swordfish stated. "Then why don't you tell them the truth?" Anthony pressed. "Can you really call them friends if you can't trust them?" "I do trust them!" Swordfish cried. "I just… get paranoid sometimes. My clawmate… er, roommate makes more sense for you, Cedar turned out to be a crazed serial killer. My friend Savanna was secretly part of a cult that wanted to use me to end Pyrrhia. I know that after everything that's happened here… I can trust these dragons, but damn it I still get scared! Especially when it's something like this. It seems like the world itself doesn't want me to open that chest or get any closer to figuring it out! And now, it finally can't run from me. I _will_ open that chest."

"What if what lies beyond that chest will make the world worse? What if Rainfall locked that knowledge away for a reason?" Anthony asked. "Will you still open it?" Swordfish was silent.

"Would… you really put your own personal goals over the safety of everyone else?" "No." Swordfish said quietly. "Rainfall obviously wanted me to open that chest. It wouldn't be something bad." But he said as if Anthony wasn't the only one he was convincing.

Swordfish landed on the roof of the police station. "Come on. Quickly now." Anthony said. "I'll keep watch out here. Just go in and get it." The man slipped off Swordfish's back, but he suddenly made a noise like something had surprised him. " _Swordfish! Behind us!"_ He whispered urgently. Swordfish turned around to see the shape of a dragonet watching them from a few buildings away. They wore no mobile rifles or armor of any kind, which meant they were a Camaelist. The dragon made a strange, bowing motion, and Swordfish could see that it was a Grasswing. Swordfish suddenly got a horrible thought.

"You know Swordfish, I wondered where you went after Old Monarchy attacked our army. I really thought you died. Blizzard too. But when Tornado died, I really thought it was over for me. Us new recruits weren't going to last a week. When we went back to the cave, I was alone. Neither you, nor Tornado were alive. You had both been killed by Old Monarchy. I thought this would be revenge."

Barley spread his wings and began flying towards Swordfish and Anthony. "But here you are." He said bitterly. "So tell me, why did Tornado have to die?" Anthony made a cry of surprise as if he just now realized where he had heard the name Tornado before.

"Barley… I don't want to kill you." Swordfish said with helplessness. "And I don't want to kill you, but I guess I don't have any other choice." Barley snarled. Anthony rolled away from Swordfish as Barley descended upon Swordfish and swiped at him with his claws. "Watch out for his gas breath!" Anthony warned from across the roof. Barley twisted his head to look at Anthony. "Oh, is this your human 'friend?' You truly are blind if you can't see he despises you for your scales, your horns, your blood."

Swordfish reacted quickly as Barley swung at him with his claw. Swordfish aimed the gun up at the Grasswing. He put his claw on the trigger. And then something stopped him. Looking at Barley's face reminded him of the kindness he had when Swordfish and Blizzard infiltrated the Camaelist base. The image of Anthony killing Tornado flickered through his mind like a lightning bolt.

He couldn't kill Barley. Knowing the dragon behind the snarling face now in front of him, Swordfish couldn't get himself to pull the trigger.

When Swordfish was younger and the War of Sandwing Succession was raging, the world was black and white. The Seawings and any Sandwings supporting Blister were correct, and everyone else was wrong. This was helped by Urchin, Starfish, and the Seawing propaganda that surrounded Swordfish when he was younger. The war chants that were performed above water that stirred the blood and reminded you your loyalty was to the soil and waters you were born in. Your ancestry battled to protect these lands, this tribe.

But things were simple. It seemed so obvious who was bad and who was good. When the Dragonets of Destiny rose out of the prophecy and into real life, the world changed. When Blaze won the war, it wasn't the end of the war that Pyrrhia truly gained. It was the abandonment of this black and white view the tribes had. Luckily, no real conflicts had arisen since the end of the war other than the Hunt for Prince Winter, which the Seawings played no part in.

When Swordfish was faced with the reveal of Savanna's allegiance to the Darkist Grandmaster, he wasn't in control. The Darkists had the upper hand. He couldn't possibly fight back. He had no intention, nor the need to kill Savanna, or Farseer for that matter. Swordfish was at their mercy. It was never him who had struck the killing blow. Swordfish had believed in negotiation and stopping violence with words, like the romantic stories of pacifists he had read in scrolls when he was a young dragonet, much to his father's disapproval.

But now, the means to kill were his. He was alone in this situation, save Anthony. This war had proven it was beyond peaceful resolution. Black Star and the Camaelists were entrenched in their own beliefs of superiority, and there was no room for negotiations. This was all-out war. No prophesized dragonets were going to escape a cave and repair all the hate.

The means to kill were Swordfish's. The enemy was a dragon Swordfish knew the good side of. If he did not fight back, he would die at this dragon's hand. He would have to kill Barley, or die. And he couldn't get himself to pull the trigger.

Another roar shook the ground as Camael sent another brigade of flames down upon Buckombe. Barley roared and shot a blast of gas at Swordfish's face. Swordfish took to the sky before inhaling, and Barley followed.

"There is still hope for you Swordfish!" Barley cried. "I know you aren't an evil dragon. I know you have intelligence. Reject humanity. They have no place in this world anymore. Our scales and talons are what this world was built for." Barley had an intensity in his eyes that reminded Swordfish of his brother. "All you need to do is kill your friend. Sever the tie to humanity, and you will be a true dragon."

Swordfish heard Anthony yell beneath the dragonets. "He won't do that! He's not blinded by hate like you are!" Barley attacked Swordfish once more, and this time, his claws sunk into Swordfish's shoulder. Swordfish screamed and whirled around to shoot Barley, but froze once more.

 _What are you doing? Barley has military training! He will kill you! Anthony is in no place to help you!_ Swordfish berated himself in his mind. "It's your hesitation that makes me believe." Barley said. "You don't want to kill me. I don't want to kill you either, but I will if I have to. So you have a choice, rid yourself of your chains and become free, or die."

"Barley, we will never be free of humanity." Swordfish said. "Dragons _are_ humans. Humans transformed by the power of Luna. That's why, no matter how much you try, the world will never be free of them." Barley twisted his head to look up at the moons. "No… that's impossible." He said. "This is some kind of psych-out, isn't it?" "I witnessed a woman turn into a dragon after being exposed to the Dagger of Luna." Swordfish said. "Since then… I've had dreams. They feel like memories. We are humans."

"LIAR!" Barley shrieked, and then flew at Swordfish at full speed. He sliced into Swordfish's chest with his claws. Swordfish screamed and fell to the ground with a bone-shattering crack. Everything hurt.

Swordfish once more rose the guns into the air to shoot Barley, but he was moving slowly with his injuries. Barley ripped the guns off Swordfish's arms and tossed them off the side of the building. Anthony ran towards the Grasswing, ready to kill, but Barley caught the human with his tail. Anthony grunted and shot the two shotguns at the dragonet's tail. The shells at that range successfully tore off the end of the tail. Barley screamed and flicked Anthony off the side as well with his back talons. Anthony screamed as he fell.

"…no." Swordfish wheezed as Barley's cringing face started to fade out of view. "So… you really did care about that worm." Barley said weakly, and with what sounded like sadness. "I'm sorry." Swordfish blacked out as Barley raised his talon to slit Swordfish's throat.

Swordfish was suddenly human again, and falling down an infinite tunnel. In front of him was Rainfall's chest. Swordfish reached out for it with his hand, yet it was always too far away. Suddenly, the arm of a Seawing formed over his human arm. He still felt his real arm beneath the scales, but the arm of the dragon was large enough to grab the chest. Upon grabbing it, the chest opened, and then Swordfish was awake.

 _If I die here, the world wins. The chest remains shut._

Swordfish felt something twitch in his arm. "I really thought you were a dragon." Barley muttered, about to strike. "Well, you were wrong." Swordfish said suddenly with perfect clarity. "I am human." And then Swordfish sliced forward with speed and intensity he had never shown before. The kind of speed Starfish had that Swordfish could never hope to match. And then red blood began to pour out of Barley's throat. The Grasswing collapsed on top of Swordfish, and Swordfish blacked out as his wounds bled. Swordfish could almost see the face of Urchin, smiling.

Anthony had landed on the awning of a building. He sat up with a groan. He was sore. Anthony suddenly remembered what had happened. He carefully slipped off the awning and onto a table that had been placed outside as part of a kiosk. Anthony entered the police station and quickly ran up the wooden stairs once more. He ran into the room the weapons had been in. Luckily, Rattlesnake's oil lantern was still lit. Swordfish's satchel lay on a wooden crate in a corner. Anthony grabbed it. It was a bit large for him, belonging to a dragonet and all, but he still managed to get it.

Anthony ran past a mirror and up the stairs leading to the roof. Swordfish was laying down on the roof, his wounds bleeding quite badly. The Grasswing, Barley, was laying on top of him, dead. Anthony pried Barley loose and the body fell to the street below, landing with a horrific crunching noise.

"Swordfish! Are you alright?!" Anthony cried. "Anthony… remember when I was angry at you for killing him?" Swordfish said weakly without opening his eyes.

. . .

Rattlesnake watched Camael continue destroying the city in the distance with horror. The forces of Old Monarchy flew towards the factories to drop off humans to get the smoke going. "Do you really think this will work?" She asked Marie. "It's all we've got." Marie answered solemnly. "If this doesn't work… we will die."

Rattlesnake couldn't help but think about her earring. The one Savanna had given her so long ago. It was buried under rubble somewhere, through the fire and the flames. Would she ever get it back? And now that she knew it had special powers…

 _No. It's not important. You'll be better off destroying all relations with Savanna. He's gone._ Part of her brain said. Yet… it was just over there…

Rattlesnake landed on the street next to one of the factories and Marie got off her back. "Trabaja rapido." Said a Rockwing next to Rattlesnake. The humans ran into the factory, aiming their weapons into the dark out of paranoia as lanterns were lit.

Rattlesnake turned and flew back towards Mullberry Street, where she met up with Vine and Azure. "Where are Polar and Michael?" She asked the Seawing. "They're protecting one of the factories from any Camaelist soldiers who might attack." She responded. "When do we start blowing smoke?" Vine asked. "When that building starts smoking." Azure said, pointing to the factory Marie had entered.

Soon enough, the sound of the factory working began to churn out of the building, and the smoke began pouring out of the smokestacks, thick and black. Perfect. "Come on dragons! The humans did their part! Flap your wings as hard as you can! When the smoke reaches that flaming bastard, think! As loud as you can!" Cried a Nightwing, who must have been the group's assigned mind-reader.

Rattlesnake looked at the other factories surrounding them. They had all begun smoking. Hecate's group was in position a distance away from Camael with the weapon ready. The first group's smoke began to travel towards Camael as the dragons of Old Monarchy used their wings to push it towards the Demon.

The nerves were high in the dragons around Rattlesnake. She could feel it. Vulture was almost shaking in fear behind her. He had told her that the Nightwing part of the plan had been his. Vine was a mixture of pale green, brown, and indigo. Fear, stress, and something else.

"Group Two's smoke has reached the vicinity of Camael!" Reported the Nightwing. "Flap harder! Get that smoke to move!" Rattlesnake began to flap her wings faster. The factory kept pumping out the black smoke. It almost began to become silent as everyone focused on getting the smoke to Camael. Just a little more…

"THAT'S IT!" Cried the Nightwing. "NOW THINK!" Rattlesnake kept staring at the Demon in the distance. _You Demons… it's your fault any of this is happening at all. You stole my life away from me. I think for once… a death will better the world._

Silence…

An explosion rocked the area. Rattlesnake twisted her head to see that Group Five's factory had exploded. Gunshots sounded. "Nani?" Cried a voice nearby.

The silence suddenly burst into chaos like a bubble as the factories began to explode.

. . .

Michael jumped off the falling body of a Camaelist Sandwing. Polar caught him and they resumed flying back towards the exploded factory. The Camaelists had thrown crudely-made bombs into the windows of the factories in a surprise attack that caught many guards by surprise. Marie was in one of those buildings.

Polar landed next to the fiery remains of the building and Michael hastily jumped off and joined the crowd of people looking for survivors. "Michael!" Cried a voice. He turned around to see Marie covered in ash. Her clothes were burned and torn and her arm was hanging in a weird position. "Broken arm?" Michael asked, running over to her. "Yeah, I think some ribs too." She said, cringing. "But overall I think I'm fine. Go defend the survivors with Polar." She said. "Are you sure?" Michael asked. "Yes." She said through gritted teeth. "I'm fine."

Michael ran back through the flaming debris. Polar was looking around nervously. "Thanks to our plan, the smoke here is so thick, nobody can see into the sky. We have no idea what they're doing." She said angrily. "This is really bad."

"I thought we determined that a while ago!" Michael cried. "Let's go above the smoke! Maybe Hecate fired the lance or whatever! Maybe Camael died!" Michael got back on Polar and the pair of soldiers flew through the thick layer of smoke to get a clearer view.

As soon as they were clear of the smoke, a Nightwing descended upon them. Polar dodged the Nightwing's attack, and blasted her with frostbreath. The Nightwing slowed down with the cold, and Polar shot the black dragon in the head.

When the Camaelist fell through the smoke like water absorbing a pebble, Polar spun around to see Camael. He was roaring and fighting something. Something they couldn't see. Lightning suddenly shot out of the sky and blasted Camael from multiple directions.

"Is Hecate fighting him one-on-one?" Michael asked with shock. "She must be…" Polar answered. "I wonder what kind of spells she's using…" A dark purple shape moving nearby suddenly caught Michael's eye. He turned his head to see an Aniwing above the smoke as well.

"Polar…" Michael said quietly, but she was already looking at him. "Wraith." She said with malice. Both Michael and Polar had sworn to kill the Camaelist general. "Do you think this is his plan?" Michael asked. "That traitor knows Buckombe. He probably was watching the factories from the beginning." Polar said angrily.

"He has his guard down. He thinks everyone is inside the smoke." Michael said. Polar slowly moved out of Wraith's line of sight, and then quickly flew to a building behind Wraith. "We fire at the same time." Michael whispered. "Both guns." Polar agreed. "No escape for him."

Polar lifted into the air, quickly scanning for any other Camaelists, and then descended upon Wraith. Michael aimed his gun at the dragon's head, and fired. Polar did the same, but on the torso. Wraith screamed as he was hit with four bullets at the same time. The treasonous dragon's blood went spurting out of the other end of his body. As the body fell, it turned around. Right before it disappeared into the smoke, Michael saw the dragon's face.

 _Not Wraith._

It wasn't Wraith. Just a dragon that looked like him. It was a decoy.

Michael turned his head around to see the real Wraith descend out of the sky towards the two soldiers. Polar turned too and wildly shot. Both bullets missed. Wraith slammed into Polar and slashed at her face. His talons turned blue with the blood. Michael fired his shotguns, but Wraith activated the Animyre.

He moved at lightning speed, but it must have been normal speed to Wraith. Everything else was just moving slowly. Wraith grabbed one of Polar's rifles and wrestled it off her arm.

And then Michael was falling. The noise of the gunshot reached his ears after it happened. Polar was falling next to him, her head shot open. Michael was covered in her blood. Wraith looked down at him, holding the rifle, and then Michael was swallowed by the smoke. He was falling. Down, down, down, and into the fires below. No words came to mind. Nothing could. He had failed.

. . .

Rattlesnake sat behind one of the buildings with Vine and Vulture. It was dark. The sound of the battle raged beyond them. Vine was lightly crying. Anthony had found the Old Monarchy forces. Swordfish had been hurt and Anthony couldn't get him help. Blizzard had gone to help him.

"If Old Monarchy falls… the Camaelists will win." Rattlesnake said quietly. "Hey…" Vine said after minutes of silence. "How do we know how the Necklace of Eclis works?" "Wha… what do you mean?" Vulture asked. "Well, we thought that when we went back in time, we would stop the Scorching… but what if… we aren't changing anything. What if this all already happened? What if this _is_ the Scorching?"

Silence fell upon the dragonets once more, and then Vulture gasped. "Camael only attacked once we had the Relics of Hamza. We didn't stop the Scorching, we _caused_ it!" "How… did we cause it?" Rattlesnake asked warily. "We helped find the Relics. Old Monarchy using the Relics is probably what made Camael attack like this. This means that… no matter what we do… humanity is doomed." The weight of that sunk in. "It's not over yet!" Rattlesnake said with false determination. Everyone knew it was essentially hopeless now.

Rattlesnake looked out of the alleyway they were hiding in, and saw Blizzard struggling to drag Swordfish towards her. Rattlesnake ran forward to help her. Swordfish was unconscious and in bad shape. His bones looked broken and there was an ugly slash down his chest and what looked like claw-marks in his shoulder. Rattlesnake was suddenly transported back to the time she was at Swordfish's side as he died from Cedar's wounds. She took the other end of Swordfish as his wings fell limp in the air as Blizzard and Rattlesnake carried the Seawing into the alley.

"Anthony went to go look for Marie and Michael." Blizzard said. "But we need help." "Everyone needs help!" Vine cried. She had what looked like tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Everyone's dying!" "The plan is hopeless now." Vulture said glumly. "We just have to hope Hecate can kill Camael without the smoke. She's new to animus. I don't think that's going to go very well."

"If Old Monarchy falls, what are we going to do?" Vine asked sadly. "Well… just because Old Monarchy falls… it doesn't mean we have to." Blizzard said. Rattlesnake turned to look at the dirtied Icewing. She had her talon touching Swordfish's arm, and Rattlesnake felt a twinge of jealousy.

"That's right!" Vulture exclaimed. "If we can go get the Necklace of Eclis, we can go back home! Back to Pyrrhia! All of this will just become history again!" "But what about our friends?" Vine asked. "We can't just abandon them! Will we really feel good knowing we abandoned humanity and left them to die to the Camaelists?" "We never felt bad about it before! We always knew the Scorching happened and our ancestors killed off most of humanity! We just didn't know all the facts!" Vulture argued. Rattlesnake thought as he talked.

"What if… we take Old Monarchy with us?" She suggested. Vulture fell silent. "What if the reason Old Monarchy lost, was because they went to the future? What if humanity made a comeback, 5000 years in the future?" "Would that even work?" Blizzard asked nervously. "Maybe bringing this world to our world won't end well. Be it them, us, or both." "What if this creates the third dragon-human war?" Vulture asked.

"I side with Rattlesnake." Vine said. "If we leave them here, we're dooming them to die. If we take them with us, we give Old Monarchy a chance for survival."

The dragonets fell silent again. "That's… a good point, Vine." Vulture said. "Then let's go." Rattlesnake said. "Go tell as many Old Monarchy superiors as you can. See if you can convince them to retrieve the necklace and then head into the future." She said to Vulture and Vine. "Blizzard and I will get Swordfish to a medic." Blizzard and Rattlesnake lifted the Seawing again and began dragging him towards a medic, while Vine and Vulture flew off to find other Old Monarchy troops.

When they got to the medics, Rattlesnake and Blizzard flopped Swordfish down on the cobblestone street. They were in a courtyard behind an Arnish government building. There were injured Old Monarchy soldiers everywhere, and the few medics were struggling to keep everyone safe. "Blizzard…" Swordfish suddenly said. Blizzard looked down at him and gave a sympathetic smile. "Remember… Barley?" He said weakly. He was wearing a kind of creepy grin.

"…Yes I remember him." The Icewing said. "He's… dead." Swordfish said, still wearing the grin, before passing out again. "Swordfish… did you kill him?" Blizzard asked, a look of fear Rattlesnake had never seen before shooting through her eyes. Swordfish did not answer.

"What's wrong with him?" Asked a man coming up behind Rattlesnake. She turned to the medic. "Broken bones and that nasty scratch." She said looking back at the Seawing. Out of the corner of her eye, it looked like Blizzard's claw was twitching.

"The bones will heal. It's the scratch that looks like it could be bad. Do you know what kind of dragon did it?" The medic asked. "Grasswing." Blizzard said from behind Rattlesnake. "Alright." The man said. "We can stop the bleeding." Blizzard inhaled deeply, and then began walking away from Swordfish briskly. Rattlesnake took one last look at Swordfish, once again feeling like she was back in the healing center. And then she followed Blizzard.

When the pair of dragonets met up with Vine and Vulture again, there were soldiers with them. "Some soldiers want to do it. They realize it's between this and death." Vulture said grimly. "We still have to check the survivors of the factory explosions." "Then we go there next." Rattlesnake said, looking over at the factory Marie had been in. "Marie is in there somewhere."

Rattlesnake flew low through the smoking debris of the factory. There was chunks of building, burned machinery, fires, and huddled groups of survivors, laying low in the smoke as the battle raged a few blocks away.

And then she saw it. She saw Azure first. Then Anthony and Marie, hugging each other. But it was what lay in front of them that made Rattlesnake land in the dust and stop.

Polar was dead. The top of her head looked like it had been shot open. She had gruesomely fell to the ground. Her wings were crumpled and broken. Her arm looked almost snapped in half. She had burn marks all along her legs and tail. Nearby was a burnt and broken lump. Rattlesnake almost dismissed it as a large piece of debris of some sort when she saw the remnants of blonde hair on top. That grey clump of burned and broken flesh was Michael.

Rattlesnake bent over on the ground and promptly vomited. She began shaking, the images of her two dead friends imprinted in her brain. She felt tears coming, but they never came. _She should have been there to help… why wasn't she there…?_

"…No…" Said the voice of Blizzard nearby. The others had arrived. A shriek from Vine suddenly echoed through Rattlesnake's head. It sounded… terrifying. There was silence. The low murmuring from the other survivors, the nearby battle, and the roar of Camael in the distance was all there was.

"…What killed them?" Vulture asked softly. "I… don't… know…" Anthony said blankly. Marie sobbed. Azure was crying silently.

"We… have a plan." Blizzard said. "We take the Necklace of Eclis, we go back to Lochberg, we open the portal, and everyone goes back to our time. Everyone." There was silence from the three Old Monarchy soldiers. Rattlesnake fell to the ground as another wave of grief washed over her. Vine was flickering a multitude of colors. Light blue, red, black, acid green, brown, dark grey.

"And I'm going to get that Necklace right now." Blizzard said, her voice breaking. "I'm going alone. Nobody else I care about is going to die-." And then Blizzard broke down into intense sobbing. To see the strongest fighter Rattlesnake knew break down like that… was pure terror in itself.

A sudden, piercing sound echoed from the battle between Old Monarchy and Camael. "Blizzard… You can't go alone. You'll die too." Azure said slowly. "No I won't." Blizzard said through the tears. "I can't." "But you can." Vulture said. "NO!" Blizzard screamed, standing up. "I'm going to get that necklace, and I'm coming back alive." And then she spread her wings and took off through the smoke.

"Blizzard!" Marie cried after the Icewing, but then she lay back into Anthony. "I'm following her. I'll hang back." Rattlesnake said. "There's… something I need to do." Rattlesnake spread her wings and took off in the direction of Blizzard.

When Rattlesnake cleared the smoke layer, she looked around for Blizzard. She was gone. _What?_ Rattlesnake thought to herself, feeling the streaks of tears on her face begin to dry as she flew. But then she saw it in the distance. Blizzard was streets away already, and flying incredibly fast. _How is she doing that?_ Rattlesnake knew there was something weird about Blizzard, like she had some kind of animus magic. Ever since she passed through Darkstalker's enchanted cliff without a problem, Rattlesnake had suspected Blizzard of being an animus.

As Rattlesnake tried to keep up with the Icewing, she passed through the destruction. Fires, bodies, debris, and weapons littered the city. Rattlesnake slowed down to look at a dead group of humans with horror. It looked like they had been taking cover and got hit by one of Camael's fireballs. Rattlesnake suddenly heard wingbeats behind her. She turned around and screamed as a pair of large dragons were flying directly towards her. A Skywing and an Icewing.

The Skywing reached her first. Rattlesnake aimed her gun threateningly, but she didn't have to. Blizzard flew past at incredible speeds, using her front claws to cut open the Skywing's neck. Red blood spurted into the sky as the Skywing fell. The Icewing put his guard up and swung his tail at Blizzard. Blizzard dodged it easily and spun in the air, attacking the Icewing with all four claws in a cycle, her bladed gauntlets doing extra damage. The Icewing fell out of the sky as well, his upper chest torn apart.

Rattlesnake had landed on the roof of a building, and watched the Icewing work, amazed. This wasn't normal skill. This was definitely animus magic. Those were big dragons and she was a dragonet, and barely had a scratch on her. Blizzard flew towards Rattlesnake, a look of anger on her face. "I said I was going alone!" She yelled. "But it's not safe! What if something happens?" "I'm not concerned for my safety, I'm concerned for yours!" A roar from nearby made them both turn and look across the street. A Nightwing was coming towards them, probably a friend of the other two.

"Can I have your gun?" Blizzard asked. "It'll make things a lot easier." Rattlesnake said nothing, but hastily unlatched the weapon from her arm, and gave it to Blizzard. "Thanks." Said the Icewing, not even bothering to attach the weapon. She aimed at the Nightwing and fired. The shot hit him straight in the head, and he fell off the roof.

"How…" Rattlesnake began to ask, mystified and a bit scared of her friend. "My cousin's animus magic." Blizzard responded. She handed the gun back to Rattlesnake and began to fly away again. Rattlesnake quickly attached the gun to her forearm once more, and followed Blizzard. This time, Blizzard flew at Rattlesnake's pace.

"Why are you so concerned about our safety, but not your own?" Rattlesnake asked Blizzard, who had opened her mouth to protest Rattlesnake following her. She shut it, and then said: "Because I care about you guys more than anything else in the world."

And then she flew off again, leaving Rattlesnake to watch her as she flew towards the remains of the palace. Rattlesnake flew over where Hecate had been stationed. Solberg and the rest of the leaders were gathered under a destroyed carriage. Solberg made eye contact with Rattlesnake, and she pointed towards the direction of the gathering Old Monarchy troops preparing to leave. Solberg solemnly shook his head and began to run away from the path of Camael.

When the crater the explosion had left came into view, Blizzard was already there, digging through the dirt and debris. The massive shape of Camael lurched forward in the distance, leaving a trail of destruction and fire in his wake. It sounded like his forces were moving with him. A wave of Camaelism ravaging the city.

Blizzard was digging through the debris where the Star of the Goddesses had been. As she pulled out the Necklace of Eclis from the rubble, Rattlesnake turned and looked up at the three moons. Even if they returned home, nothing would ever be the same.

When Rattlesnake looked back down, she saw Vulture standing nearby, watching them. Not her friend Vulture. It the leader of the Enclave Vulture. The scariest dragon in the Scorpion Den. Rattlesnake jumped backward, terrified. Blizzard looked up with a look of worry and intensity.

"I guess those Relics truly are indestructible through basic means." Said Vulture. "How are you here, Camael?" Blizzard asked darkly. "Same goes for you." Camael said. Rattlesnake remembered what Swordfish, Vine, and Blizzard had said about Camael. How he took the form of which dragon scared you the most. Rattlesnake wondered who Blizzard saw.

"I am projecting this towards you as I crush Old Monarchy." Camael said calmly. "Once they fall, Black Star will not be able to win. The King is doing his work. Dragons will soon reign supreme in this dimension." Camael saw the Necklace of Eclis in Blizzard's talons.

"Escape to the future if you choose." Camael said, turning to Rattlesnake. "But know that destruction always comes to those who are in need of it. The world needs a cycle of species. It's what happened to the dinosaurs." Rattlesnake had no idea what Camael was saying now.

"Is that why you aren't stopping us?" Blizzard asked. "Because you know we'll get destroyed anyway?" "Well, that and it's interesting. To know that it's you coming to get that Relic. I was watching you from the moment I saw you in Paisland. I want to ask…" Camael began to Blizzard, but she lunged at the dragon in front of her. He disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The pair of dragonets turned and looked at Camael. Another lance was fired out of thin air at him, which he destroyed with fire. He didn't look back.

"Come on." Blizzard said faintly. "Let's go." She took off back in the direction the pair came. Rattlesnake turned and looked back at the remains of the Great Hall. She quickly ran towards it and dug at the rubble with her claws until she saw the gold she was looking for.

. . .

Swordfish awoke with a jolt. His friends were gathered around him. The pain of his wounds had dulled greatly. He stood up as he heard dragons flying away and the pounding of footsteps nearby. "I still can't believe you actually stayed back and got it." Blizzard said angrily to Rattlesnake. "Aren't you glad Swordfish is alright?" Rattlesnake shot back at the Icewing, giving her a suspicious look.

"…I guess I am." Blizzard said, giving Swordfish a sad smile. "Welcome back." Vulture said. "Michael and Polar are dead. The war is unwinnable. We can't change past events after all. We're all escaping to Pyrrhia with the Necklace of Eclis. We healed you with the Earring of Sola."

"Wait… what?!" Swordfish asked, shooting up from where he was laying. He turned around to see the grief-filled faces of Anthony, Marie, and Azure. "We found Bai too… He was dead in the street." Anthony said sadly.

Swordfish suddenly remembered what had happened with Barley. Michael, Polar, and Bai were dead. And Swordfish had killed Barley. The horror of the final confrontation with Barley all came back to him. He looked down at the ground, and felt the Earring of Sola on his ear with his claw.

Swordfish let out a scream. "Swordfish…?" Vine asked. "What's wrong? Do the injuries still hurt?" Swordfish kept screaming until his breath ran out. "Are you okay?" Vulture asked, worried. "Yeah… I guess I'm fine." Swordfish said, regaining his composure. "I was just realizing something."

The world Swordfish knew was gone. He was a killer. He had killed a good-hearted dragon. Even if he returned, the world of Pyrrhia would be forever changed. Almost like it was a completely different world entirely. And Swordfish was forever changed. He would never be able to be the anxious Seawing dragonet living under the water again. He would never again be a quiet student at Jade Mountain Academy, eating lunch with his friends and devising foolish plans to confess his love to Rattlesnake that were never used, talking with Cedar and goofing off with Vulture and Darkseer. It would never be the same. Old Monarchy would exist in Pyrrhia. The threat of the Darkists would be there. Knowing the truth about the Demons and just how much they interfere with the world would forever be there. Knowing where dragons came from would forever haunt him. Knowing about the Moon Goddesses and about the Angels would change his world view. Wondering how Pyrrhia was formed from this world… what happened to the Grasswings, Aniwings, and Rockwings and why Pyrrhia was so radically Camaelist would always be there. And now, Swordfish would have to live with himself as a killer. Someone with blood on their talons.

As the Old Monarchy forces began to leave Buckombe, a sudden sound made the soldiers look back towards the battle between Hecate and Camael. A huge shield of light was creeping towards Camael. It spanned over entire buildings, and Camael was blasting it with a beam of fire so powerful, it was holding the magic back. "Oh my Goddesses." Azure said as the fire got more intense. The shield began creeping backward…

And then it pressed forward into Camael. Camael's fire exploded and a sound so loud and so intense shook the entire Old Monarchy army as it burst forward.

The power of the fire seemed to meet the power of the shield in an explosion that reached far into the ground. The earth began to shake as something began to happen. Screams could be heard as the city suddenly began ripping itself apart from the spot the explosion happened. "GET ON DRAGONBACK!" Someone cried as the soldiers began running and flying away from the crack forming in the land. Swordfish lowered his back to let Anthony climb on, and the Old Monarchy army flew in the opposite direction, choosing to go around the mountain range over going through the crack.

The flight was long and tiresome as the early hours of the morning creeped over them. There was almost complete silence as the dragons and humans watched the massive crack split down the continent from a distance, destroying everything in its path. When the sun began to rise in the distance, Solberg led the forces down to an old warehouse full of cloaks for dragons, so that they could conceal themselves if needed.

Swordfish flew with Rattlesnake the whole way there, wearing her earring. She didn't ask for it back. What Swordfish did notice was the strange glances she kept sending in Blizzard's direction.

The army stopped in a large forest on the Verlassen border to rest. Swordfish fell into a dreamless sleep for once as the rumbling in the distance put him to sleep. There was nothing haunting him in that moment. Rattlesnake sleeping beside him. The forest life waking up in the early morning. And he was going home. Swordfish wanted to enjoy these last moments in a world forgotten. A world of humans and dragons. A world of wonders and technology and what would have been a dreamscape in times of peace. In that moment, he forgot his worries and fear. He forgot about his mission to find the truth and revenge. In that moment, laying there in the thick Verlassen forest, he was free.

Swordfish did remember waking up for the first time in the dragon prison. Michael and Polar had been the first friendly faces of the new world. And now they were gone. Taken by dragon cruelty.

Laying there in the dirt, Swordfish felt something stirring within him. The same feeling of seeing himself as human, but it felt comforting this time. Like this was where the human soul within belonged. This world of rolling hills and cobblestone villages.

When the soldiers reached Lochberg, Blizzard directed Solberg towards the spot where the portal opened. Solberg looked around at the survivors. They had picked up as many civilians as they could. Old Monarchy's last hope stood huddled around in a street in front of the King Burkhardt Bank. The skeletons had begun to decay further in the sun. Soon, they would be gone forever.

Vulture suddenly took off into the sky and flew around, and then quickly returned to the group on the street. "What was that?" Swordfish asked the Skywing. "I was looking at the crevice. The mountains that will one day become Darkstalker's Teeth, are on the other side of the crevice, which is getting bigger. The continent is splitting apart."

Solberg said the incantation to get the Necklace of Eclis to work, and the portal opened. The portal to the Lost City of Night. Solberg stepped aside. "After you." He said to the dragonets. Swordfish felt his satchel across his chest, the code inside.

He took one last look at the sun in the sky above Lochberg. _Goodbye._ Swordfish thought, and then stepped inside the portal.

Meanwhile, on Paisland, the Earring of Sola reappeared in the ruins of the cavern.

 **WOW WHAT A CHAPTER! The end of the second arc of the story is complete. I want to thank everyone who has read this far. This story has so much effort put into it, and I'm so glad to see people enjoying it. If you've followed everything thus far, congratulations. Things are about to get interesting.**

 **See you in the next arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc! arc!**

 **_ERR: NULL_**

" _ **I knew you wouldn't do it Swordfish, I just had to try."**_

 **Orighwoieruhgiwureghiuweryg8twn0vuheip**

" _ **I'm sorry. It's not your fault."**_

 _ **Aoe8rtun9vw8twpnwv8w98**_

" _ **I can only pray whoever is reading this is an ally of mine or Anthony's."**_

 _ **Aruinv8yhvhegvusoivpgshis**_

Rattlesnake was frozen. Her claw grasped at the Earring of Sola. "Are you really that blind?" Vulture yelled, tears in his eyes, yet anger on his lips.

"She's been in contact!" Swordfish pleaded. "She's like me! Remember what Constellation said to Rainfall!" Delta sobbed by a fallen tree.

"World Jumping pales in comparison to the Power of Hamza!" Vulture argued. Another roar nearby made them all jump. "One will die, and if you can't make that decision, I will!" Vulture said, stepping towards Rattlesnake with his claws outstretched, the intent to harm in his eyes. Rattlesnake stepped backward, fear in her eyes. Swordfish ran towards Vulture with his tail raised, ready to strike.

 **Tears. Fear. Chest. Unleashed. Sola. Jade. Augustia. Darkstalker. Sand. Frost. Rainforest. Eclis. Hell. Star. Purge. Remember. Fire. Rise. Choices. Stygal. Luna. Grandmaster. Dark. Pyrrhia. Traveler. Angels. King. Death.**


	44. Winglet 5: Warrior

**The third arc begins. Nothing will ever be the same.**

When Typhoon got the letter from her father, she couldn't believe it.

Her grandfather, Cerulean, had gotten a new neighbor. Starfish, the hero of the Sea Kingdom. The guard who stopped Anemone and saved the palace from her wrath, and his father, Urchin. Cerulean was an aristocrat in the Sea Kingdom and had met Urchin, the strange father of the kingdom's hero. Cerulean had wanted his granddaughter to marry Starfish, but he was already taken. But Cerulean knew it would be too good to pass up an opportunity to marry into the family of a hero like that. Already being a noble was good, but this would solidify the family's position in Coral's aristocracy, and for generations of queens to come.

So a deal was struck between Cerulean and Urchin. Urchin's other son, Swordfish, was available, and even attending the same school as Typhoon was. If there was a marriage between the two, both families would benefit greatly. Cerulean's family would get a stake in whatever Starfish's family was bestowed by the crown, and Urchin's family could achieve the old glory they once had within the capital as guards. Urchin told stories of how generations upon generations of his ancestors had guarded the crown with honor, and recently had fallen from their grace.

The only one who didn't benefit from this was Typhoon herself. And maybe Swordfish too. Typhoon didn't know the other new Seawing very well.

The other problem with this arrangement was that Typhoon was quite convinced that Swordfish and the rest of his winglet, save Darkseer, were dead. They had disappeared after Swordfish and that weird new Rainwing Vine, went to see the queen of the Rainwings, Glory.

Typhoon had a theory about what had happened to them. Someone had tipped off the teachers of Jade Mountain Academy, the Dragonets of Destiny that four of their students, including two from Typhoon's own winglet, Scaleslasher and Savanna, were part of a cult that had plans to take over Pyrrhia by freeing Darkstalker. None of the dragonets had shown up since then.

Typhoon was convinced that those dragonets who had left had been captured and possibly killed by the "Darkists." Messages had been sent out to every queen from the dragonets about this threat, but nobody had been able to find any leads on their members, or where they might meet. Fear and paranoia were rippling through Pyrrhia. The teachers and the other students were freaking out over so many missing students. It had been about a month since they left.

After receiving the letter, Typhoon had to go into the pool within the academy. She was alone there. Perfect. She dove into the water and felt the liquid soak into her scales. This pool was the only place in this stupid mountain that reminded Typhoon of what she did when she got mad back home, float near the surface and let the sun shine through the water and onto her scales.

Doing this at a time like this reminded Typhoon of times she had done this when mad at her family.

Once, when Aunt Aqua came over, before she died in a battle against Icewings, she had gotten into an argument with Typhoon's mother, Ling.

 _"You've grown soft, Ling. Don't you remember how our father raised us? This war is how Seawings will rise to the top, along with all Sandwings who support their true queen!" "Aqua, you're the one who has gotten too zealous! This war is harming us! We are outnumbered greatly! We need to try and draw it to a close, not keep it going!" "War keeps the Seawings moving! An enemy forces our guard up! If we let it slip, the other queens will come eventually. Peace will only come when Seawings rule the entire continent!" "My daughter will not grow up in a world at war." Ling flashed. "Oh, because our generation is going to end the war! They've proven to be so good at it!" Aqua flashed with a nasty grin. She grabbed the young Typhoon by the horns and smiled into her face. "Do you trust your dad out there?" She flashed. "Aqua stop!" Ling flashed. "Are you going to be tough? Or are you going to be a shrimp like your mother?!"_

Typhoon felt the water wash over her. There was a time when Typhoon's father, Wave, tried to make her kill an octopus.

 _"How will you defend this kingdom if you can't kill?" Her father flashed angrily. "Do you want to be a soldier?" Typhoon looked at the floating creature. "Are you going to be a shrimp?" Her father asked threateningly. "Because there are no shrimps in this family!" The young Typhoon stared into the animal's eyes, and swam away, her father swimming after her in anger._

The water was calming. Once, during a family get-together, Typhoon's grandmother, Ray, gave a speech in Aquatic.

 _"I look around at these dragons, and I see proud veterans and soon-to-be soldiers." She flashed proudly. "Of course, there are a few weak links here and there, but we remain as swords of the Seawings!" Typhoon had known that comment was aimed at her. She felt eyes on her for a moment as the other dragons looked at her as if she was an oyster who had gone bad, and was now undesirable. Typhoon could almost see it in their faces, as if eyes had Aquatic all on their own._ "Shrimp…"

Sinking down into the water felt like Typhoon could momentarily drop her strength and be a dragonet again. It had been after that day that Typhoon decided there would be no more shrimp. She would reinvent herself as someone her family would finally accept. She killed the octopus, she killed more than an octopus. She became tough. She became strong. She learned what her family liked and did it until it became nature for her. She even went with Aqua one day…

She was flying alongside her aunt and her aunt's son, Turtle. Her aunt wanted to show her what it was like to be a soldier on the islands above the sea level. "It was on this island that Commander Tempest was killed years ago." Turtle said to Typhoon. "Some Seawings say that the assassin who killed her was struck by lightning and died, and their ghost still haunts the island." He said as if to scare her. Typhoon shrugged it off.

The Seawings landed on the shore of the island and looked around. "It's on islands like these where we have to be careful. Our enemies don't know the location of the Summer Palace and we can't give them any ideas. If too many Seawings are seen on the islands around it, they might be able to guess where it is." Aqua said. Typhoon nodded curtly.

"It's Mudwings we have to be the most careful of. Our old alliance with them resulted with Moorhen having knowledge of key islands in our archipelago." "Why did we break with them again?" Turtle asked, bored. "Because of the note that was attached to the spear that killed Commander Tempest." Typhoon answered. "You are correct Typhoon." Aqua responded, and Typhoon felt pride. There was not a hint of disappointment in her aunt's voice.

"However, I do not believe the Mudwings did it. It wouldn't make sense for them to do it. The deal they had with Blister for land was greater than they had initially hoped. Moorhen is many things, but not a greedy queen. Blister was correct to search the island that day. Did you know that a dying Nightwing was found on this very island?"

Silence fell upon the two dragonets. "I believe someone else killed Tempest. This war, while great for the Seawings and our progression as a tribe, is a front. Someone else is pulling the strings, and I think it's the Nightwings."

Unfortunately for Aqua, she would not live to see her theory proven. She was killed by Icewings shortly before the Dragonets of Destiny were first found by Scarlet. Her body was never found.

But Typhoon always remembered that day. The day that Aunt Aqua, the toughest of the entire family, accepted her. It made her feel… special. That she was truly a warrior of the sea.

Typhoon floated back up to the top of the pool. There was still other angry memories. Her fight with her mother when she wanted her to go to this school. The time she fought Turtle over a piece of shark meat when she was young and lost. The time she swore at another student in school and received punishment from her grandfather in the form of labor. But those memories could be thought of another time.

Right now, it was time for class. Typhoon went back to her cave to dry off and get her scrolls. She paused and stared at the spot where Scorch used to sleep. That insufferable Skywing. Her insecure attitude reminded Typhoon so much of her own, younger, weaker self. Constantly trying to act as if she was something she wasn't. Yet… part of her missed her clawmate, and then the one last embarrassment rippled through her mind.

Typhoon grabbed her scrolls and walked towards the class she had with Clay. She passed Webs in the hallway, who gave her a nod, but Typhoon almost felt like his eyes could see right through her. Something about him seemed… off. Typhoon looked away from him, ashamed.

The one last thing that would make the marriage with Swordfish so awful. One last thing her family would never approve of. One last thing that haunted Typhoon everywhere she went.

She didn't like males.

 **Reveal Moment: The cover image is a post-Scorching depiction of the humans worshipping Hecate, the first animus, as dragons bear down on them. Hecate has been burned out of the middle.**


	45. Chapter 39: Endgame

_Part of Swordfish just wanted to forget about Rainfall, Vine, the scavenger thing, and his dreams and go back to being the Swordfish that didn't care about anything…_

" _I wonder what's in there." Cedar said suddenly. "What did Rainfall write that's so important?"…_

" _Don't go digging too deep, Swordfish"…_

 _The chest was wooden, but reinforced with metal all around it. Savanna stepped back. "Swordfish, he told you to open it."…_

" _Yeah, sometimes late at night he would write in his scroll while talking to his scavenger"…_

 _Those things, Cassriel and Abyss, had come to kill him for getting too close to whatever this world was hiding…_

" _WHY? WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE LEFT IN THE DARK?"…_

" _Rainfall began writing in a scroll each night we were in this new world"…_

" _You can see through the lies"…_

" _What if what lies beyond that chest will make the world worse? What if Rainfall locked that knowledge away for a reason?"…_

" _Will you still open it?"…_

 _ **12261326**_

. . .

Swordfish stepped into the Lost City of Night and took a deep breath as the familiar air of Pyrrhia washed over him and into his lungs. Rattlesnake was already there, picking up the Necklace of Eclis that Anthony had left on the ground when he stepped through the portal. "Wow… this feels like it was yesterday." She said. She turned and looked back in the direction of the palace. There were a few robed dragons flying around it, but none of them seemed to be looking at the portal. "Oh no…" Blizzard said looking at the palace. "We forgot." She said, and then turned and looked at Solberg, who had stepped through the portal and was looking around in awe.

"There's a mountain range that separates this peninsula from the desert enchanted to kill any Icewing that flies over it. It won't kill me because I was enchanted by an animus, but any Icewing escapees will surely die." She said to the general.

When all the Old Monarchy escapees had left the old world behind and crossed into the new, strange world, Solberg took charge quietly. "Okay. All dragons put up their hoods and all humans should get on dragonback. There are hostile dragons here, but our cloaks are dark enough that we can blend in if needed. There is a mountain range that separates this peninsula from the desert that will kill any Icewing that flies over it." "How is that possible?" Asked a man. "The same way Hecate was able to fight Camael. The Power of Hamza."

"Where will we go?" Asked Dufort. "This world is hostile towards humans, correct?" "Well, we call humans 'scavengers' here. Some dragons believe that scavengers are just as smart as dragons, others believe they're just food." Rattlesnake said. "But we all speak Arnish. That's where you are different. The humans here speak a different language. I think it's like one of the Eastern languages, but simplified. Arnish is the language of Pyrrhia and we didn't even know it."

"There's two major cities of humans. They're called 'scavenger dens.'" Vulture said. "There's one on the outskirts of the Rainforest, and one tucked away by the Sea Kingdom. There are others around, but if you really want to save humanity here, going to those will probably be your best bet."

"So this is what it was like…" Marie said, looking around at the world around her. "Yeah." Anthony said quietly. "If only Michael and Polar could have seen it."

"This is going to change the world." Blizzard said. "Intelligent scavengers with superior technology, the truth about the past, the truth about where dragons came from, the truth about the moons and animus and other tribes and the creation of Pyrrhia and… just… wow."

Vulture's suspicions had been confirmed. The blast from Camael and Hecate had split the continent apart and Pyrrhia was a part of the old continents. Whether or not the other continents had dragons… or even humans on it… was something nobody knew. Swordfish had once heard a story about "The Lost Continent." Another continent east of Pyrrhia. Swordfish now knew it was the other half of Augustia, the continent where Arnia had been located, and Pyrrhia was parts of Augustia and the Eastern continent of Consania.

"We need to move. When we reach the mountain range, we will take a right and head for the desert by crossing the ocean for a bit." Solberg said, looking at a map of Pyrrhia Vulture had been carrying. "And then we begin a new chapter for Old Monarchy."

Swordfish put his cloak on and let Anthony get on his back. The dragons of Old Monarchy rose up, some of the larger dragons struggling and carrying multiple humans at once. The dragons began quietly lifting off and heading away from the palace. Swordfish shot a look back at the ruins of the old palace of the Nightwings, and wondered what was happening inside. It had been almost three months since the fight with the Darkists. Swordfish wondered what had happened to Savanna. What did the Grandmaster do to him when he failed to get Swordfish to join?

As the refugees flew through the city, Swordfish watched for any dark-robed dragons prowling through the ruined city. He didn't see any. They must have all been gathered at the capital for some reason. Swordfish looked up at the sky. Clouds had gathered, blocking the sunlight. The wind had started to lightly pick up. Rattlesnake suddenly flew up beside him. "Hey…" She said quietly. "Swordfish, I want you to answer honestly. Do you think that Blizzard is an animus?" "No." Swordfish replied sincerely. "I actually thought that too, but… it's actually her cousin, Frost. She enchanted her to become a great fighter, invincible to normal attacks, and immune to animus magic." Swordfish said, and then realized he shouldn't have said that. "Don't talk about it to her. Don't let her know I said that. She's kind of sensitive about it."

"When we went to get the Necklace of Eclis, Camael approached us as a projection. He spoke directly to Blizzard. He took special interest in her, saying he was surprised it was her coming to get the relics. The way she fought the whole way there was… unnatural. She was so precise it was scary. She could kill entire full-grown dragons in under a minute." Rattlesnake said. "Well… that's the enchantment, isn't it?" Anthony asked. "Yes… but it was still strange. I don't think she told you the whole truth." Rattlesnake said, shooting a glance towards the Icewing flying closer to the front of the group, out of earshot. "I think she's hiding something."

"Blizzard wouldn't hide something too big from us. She's spent her whole life pretending to be someone she isn't, and with us, she's able to act like herself for once. I don't think she would still be hiding under a mask when she could show her true face around us." Swordfish said. "I thought you said you were paranoid." Anthony said quietly. "It seems like you trust Blizzard." "I do! I trust all of my friends here!" Swordfish said, defending himself.

"Then tell them." Anthony said. Swordfish paused. Rattlesnake gave Swordfish and Anthony a strange look. "I will when we get back to Jade Mountain." He said under his breath. The satchel was still around his neck.

When the mountains came into view, the Old Monarchy soldiers banked to the right. The ocean gleamed in the distance, the small amounts of sunlight creeping through the clouds to illuminate the waves. Swordfish thought about his family again. He would have to marry Typhoon one day. His future was not with Rattlesnake… or anyone else for that matter. It was with the granddaughter of Cerulean. Which meant… it would have to be soon that Swordfish said what he always wanted to say.

As Rattlesnake flew beside him, Swordfish remembered what it was like when she wasn't with him. When she was still remembering the other Swordfish. And now that the end of this mystery was in sight, and soon Swordfish would have to face Typhoon, it had to be soon. It had to be now.

Swordfish flew up beside Rattlesnake. "Rattlesnake." He said softly. "There's something I need to tell you."

"When I first saw you on the first day of Jade Mountain Academy, I thought you were… I thought…" Rattlesnake looked at Swordfish and he could see his own reflection in her eyes. "…How did you teleport in. I thought that was the biggest mystery." Swordfish said glumly. "But now… so much has changed. But… I'm glad you're back." He couldn't do it. Not yet. Not like this.

Swordfish took the Earring of Sola off his ear, which had been forcefully pierced with a talon. He gave it back to her. "Here. Take it back. Savanna gave that to you, right?" Rattlesnake nodded. "Before…" She said, and then stopped. She quickly put it back on her own ear. "Thank you." She said. She sounded disappointed.

"I want to see the chest opened." Anthony said suddenly from above Swordfish's head. "I want to know who my friend was." "Oh, we should introduce you to Sunny." Rattlesnake said. "I'm sure she would love to have a conversation with you. Starflight too." Swordfish smiled to himself, imagining Sunny and Starflight's reaction to the truth about scavengers.

Swordfish turned around and looked back at the coastline they were leaving behind. There was one singular Darkist on the coast, who was staring at the mass of dragons and humans flying away. Whoever it was suddenly took flight back towards the palace. It didn't matter. The Old Monarchy refugees were too fast and would be too far away soon. The water rippled beneath the waves. Soon enough, Urchin would get his glory.

When the ocean had been crossed and the dragons were over the sands of the desert, they stopped for a rest near a beach. A group of Sandwings passed them and stared, and then flew off again, probably to go tell everyone what they saw. The wind had started to pick up more and more, and sand was beginning to blow into the eyes of the refugees.

Swordfish looked around the desert. Cacti bowing slightly in the wind and the sun's rays shining through a small hole in the clouds. It had been a while since he had been in this kind of heat, and it made Swordfish wish he had some water to be in. Looking out to the ocean in the distance, Swordfish remembered that just to the east somewhere, lay a whole new world to explore. Pyrrhia was not alone. Vine came up next to Swordfish. "It's beautiful." She said. "The sand and the water are such different colors. It looks like two totally different fruits next to each other, but we're standing on them."

The two stood in silence for a moment. "I… feel like something bad is going to happen." Vine said suddenly. "I don't know what it is. Nothing has felt the same since Stone. Like… the whole world is changing again." "It will be alright." Swordfish said, unsure himself. "Once we open the chest… I think everything will be alright. Adnachiel, Cassriel, Camael… they're all gone. We haven't seen the first two in months, and Camael is back in the past." Swordfish felt Vine's tail twine around his, and he finished the twine himself. Everything was going to be alright.

"What do you mean 'once we open the chest'?" Vine asked. Swordfish stopped and realized he had let that slip. " _Well… Anthony has given me the code to the chest. Once we get back to the mountain, I'm going to open it."_ Vine's face lit up, and the colors of both excitement and worry flooded through her scales. "It'll be fine." Swordfish said. "It's just whatever Rainfall wanted to tell me all that time ago. Maybe it won't be anything new. Maybe it was just what we already have found out." But something in the back of Swordfish's mind told him otherwise.

When the refugees took to the sky once more, they kept flying eastward. The terrain slowly began to become more mountainous and rocky. More trees began showing themselves. The Academy was almost in view. Soon enough, through the clouds and trees, the largest mountains began showing themselves. And then, there it was. Jade Mountain. They had returned. Dragons flew around it in the distance. The Old Monarchy refugees landed on Agate Mountain. "Here. Keep this." Vulture said, handing Solberg the map of Pyrrhia. "The first scavenger den is east of here still. We have to leave now." The wind was getting stronger, and the trees began to shake. "Well… thank you for this escape. Because of this… humanity will live on." Solberg said. He gave the Old Monarchy salute. "Sir!" Marie said. "Anthony, Azure, and I are going into the Mountain for something. We will arrive at the scavenger den in a few days."

Solberg nodded. "I guess I can't exactly stop you since all order is out the window, but may I ask what for?" "I have to finish something I started." Anthony said. "It's urgent." "How will you get back?" Commander Dufort asked. "We can take them." Rattlesnake said. Swordfish looked over at her. Blizzard was next to her and frozen, staring at the mountain, a look of fear in her eyes.

"Well… alright." Solberg said. "I wish you good luck, Conwell. Same for you, dragonets of the future." Vulture nodded. "Good luck Old Monarchy. May the Moon Goddesses be with you." Swordfish noticed Solberg was wearing the Necklace of Eclis. _Good._ He thought. _The Relics should be spread out. I wonder where the Dagger of Luna is right now._ The refugees took to the sky and began flying away. "Let's go." Rattlesnake said as Marie got on Azure's back. Swordfish felt Anthony get on his back, and they set for the main entrance of Jade Mountain Academy.

Swordfish looked around at the dragons and two humans around him. He could trust them. _I can trust them._ Swordfish told himself. _Don't keep this a secret. They're your friends. They deserve to know._ "Hey…" Swordfish said. "Anthony gave me the code to the chest. We can open it now." "WHAT?!" Vulture cried, and turned his head around to give Swordfish a grin. "Why didn't you tell us?!" Rattlesnake asked. "I don't know… I guess once I had it I was scared something would happen to it. I wanted to keep it as safe as I could." Blizzard suddenly put on a burst of speed and flew towards the academy. "Hey! What are you doing?" Azure called out, but Blizzard kept on going.

When they all reached the entrance, they heard a roar of delight. Clay came barreling out of the door. "YOU'RE ALIVE!" He cried. "WHERE… WHAT?!" Clay paused when he saw Anthony and Marie. "Hello." Marie said. "Are you Clay?" Clay stared at her, and then at the mechanisms on the dragonets' arms. He proceeded to faint on the spot. "Well… at least this time there was no grass." Vine said.

. . .

Tsunami was furious, yet glad they returned. "WHERE DID YOU GO!? WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?! Oh Three Moons you're hurt. Your eyes!" She said, staring at Vine and Vulture's eyes. Sunny was immediately floored by the scavengers. Darkseer gave them a grin when he walked into the library, which is where they had gone. Behind him walked Falcon, who immediately stared at the mobile rifles and the two scavengers. When he saw the cloaks they were wearing, he turned around and walked away.

"Where were you?" Darkseer asked. "The past." Vulture responded, brushing wings with his clawmate. "The Scorching was SO much more than we thought." "Looks like it." Said a voice entering the library. Swordfish turned to see Typhoon standing at the entrance of the library. "You guys look like hell." She made eye contact with Swordfish and he could sense discomfort. She didn't want this either.

"Oh, and you might want to watch out. Delta and Frigid will be coming soon." "That reminds me!" Swordfish said. "There's a cult called the Darkists that wants to awaken Darkstalker and end the kingdoms. They're located in the Lost City of Night on that peninsula off of the desert and they want Frigid." "What?" Frigid asked as he entered the library. Delta ran past him to tackle her friends with a bear hug. "Yeah… what?" Fatespeaker asked.

"YOU'RE OKAY!" Delta bellowed. "I thought… first Cedar… and then everyone… but you're back! BUT YOU'RE HURT!" She looked at Vine's eye. "It's alright…" Vine said. "Swordfish… what were you saying about me?" Frigid asked blankly, but a hint of real worry showing through his eyes. "The Darkists want you. According to Moonwatcher's last prophecy, you 'hold the grandmaster's wish.' Or something like that. Frigid, do you remember your past?"

"The earliest thing I remember is trekking through the Ice Kingdom with my mother. I remember… she was nice. We were getting away from something… someone. We were going to the capital. She wanted to become like them. We… weren't from around there."

"Where were you from?" Starflight asked. "I… I don't know." Frigid said blankly. "But there wasn't ice everywhere." "Possibility?" Fatespeaker wondered. "Maybe." Vulture said. "But… maybe somewhere else."

"So we were just walking around, and then these four dragons with metal helmet-things and… those… came out of nowhere, and I hid in a pile of snow. She put me there." Frigid said, pointing to the mobile rifles on the arms of the dragonets. "Those things killed my mom." The dragonets looked at each other. Swordfish could hear Blizzard's breathing get more intense.

"She started talking to one of them. They wore armbands just as you do. She attacked one and they all shot her with those things and she died." "Armbands like they do?" Anthony asked Frigid. "Yes…"

"Is it possible… that Old Monarchy survived the Scorching after all?" Marie asked. "Where would they be?" Vine asked. "Not from around here…" Vulture said. "The other half. They came from the west. They came from the other half of Augustia."

"No… there's no way." Anthony said. "What is going on?" Typhoon asked, looking at the talking scavengers. "Are they enchanted or something?" "We can explain later, but there's something I have to do first." Swordfish said, reaching into the satchel and pulling out the black box. "It's time to open the chest." Blizzard inhaled sharply.

Swordfish turned to leave the library after taking off his rifles, but Anthony stopped him. "Shouldn't we explain everything to them first? They need to know. You never know when something… might strike again." Swordfish stopped. It was so close, but he relented. "Fine." He said, turning back to the library.

"Supposedly, it all began when a great celestial being called God came down from a planet far beyond ours called The Garden…" Marie began to those who did not know the past. Swordfish stood next to Rattlesnake, but Blizzard calmly approached him.

"Hey… Swordfish. Can we go somewhere private? We need to talk about something." She asked. "Sure…" Swordfish said, taking off his satchel and placing it next to Vine. _She knows I told Rattlesnake about Frost, doesn't she?_ Swordfish thought guiltily. Swordfish turned and shot a glance back at Rattlesnake before leaving with the Icewing. Rattlesnake was staring not at him, but at Blizzard.

Blizzard led him to the part of the halls where their old dorm was. "Let's go into your dorm." Blizzard said, and then walked in without a second thought. Swordfish wasn't complaining. He hadn't been in there in months.

Cedar's bed was just as it had been left. Swordfish's bed was the same he had left it as well. The repaired window had the familiar tapping of the branch as it blew in the wind. It just seemed… louder. _TICK… TICK… TICK…_ Blizzard turned around and shut the door. She turned to Swordfish. She had tears in her eyes.

Swordfish realized she was still wearing one of her mobile rifles. She unlatched it from her arm and gave it to Swordfish. "Swordfish, do you love me?" She asked.

"W… what?" Swordfish asked, dropping the gun in his surprise. "You heard me. Do you love me?" Swordfish stopped, thinking about her. Her eyes. Her beautiful scales. The way she trusted him more than anyone else. How she opened up to him.

"Because Swordfish… I like you. I like you a lot. I told myself this wouldn't happen. Remember how I said you reminded me of someone from my past? Well you do. You do a lot. You remind me of him so much… it's dangerous. It's dangerous for both of us."

"Why do you like me?" Swordfish asked. "You… are so different from me!" "It's the way you always press on. You keep going. And you remind me of him." "Who is he?" Swordfish asked, starting to sweat. "… I can't say." Blizzard said, defeated. "But if you have any shred of love for me, I need you to take that gun and shoot me right now." "WHAT?!" Swordfish asked, looking down at the gun and then at Blizzard. She had tears streaming from her eyes.

"Kill me, and then drop the code. You can't open that chest. Rainfall put something in there that will end the world. The end of everything." "What do you mean?!" Swordfish asked, beginning to shake. "I'm talking the Demons will not let any of this go. Once that chest is open, you will unleash something far worse than you could ever imagine. You, and everyone else, will die." "How do you know all of this?" Swordfish asked.

"I… can't say." Blizzard said, and then put her head into Swordfish's chest. "Just tell me you'll at least try. It won't work anyway. I was just hoping it would." "I can't shoot you!" Swordfish cried.

"I knew you wouldn't do it Swordfish, I just had to try." She sobbed. "It wouldn't work anyway! You can't kill me! Nothing can! I'll be trapped in this hell forever!" "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

"The story of Frost was a lie. All of it." Blizzard said. "There was no animus cousin. There was no enchantment. There was none of it. I lied to you!" Swordfish looked down at the gun, and then back at the branch. It was tapping faster as the wind picked up. " _I still can't believe I did that… He's gone."_ She whispered.

"I told myself I would stay away. I told myself I wouldn't get involved, because there might be someone who would remind me." Blizzard sobbed quietly. "I am just the same as I always was. I have no free will. And now you're going to have to die."

"Blizzard, what are you talking about?!" Swordfish yelled. "You know too much." Blizzard said through the tears. "If I don't do it, then…" Blizzard bent down and grabbed the rifle. "I already failed. Again and again. I fell in love with you. If only I had never met any of you. If only I had kept up the act."

 _TICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICK_ _ **SNAP**_! The branch blew off the tree in the wind.

Silence.

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. You were just unfortunate enough to get picked back up from wherever you came from. Vine too." Blizzard said, aiming the gun. "I love you Swordfish. You made me forget who I was. And that was nice. I was brought back to a time where I liked life." Blizzard aimed the gun. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Swordfish yelled, barely being able to comprehend what was going on.

"Swordfish. There is no Blizzard. She was only a name I made up. I am Adnachiel." She aimed the gun as Swordfish paused for a split second as everything suddenly fell into place. "I don't know what's right anymore. I don't know what to do. But we're past that. We're in the endgame now. I just have to do this and then it will be over. I'm sorry."

And then, just like Swordfish had done with Cedar, Rattlesnake ripped through the window. Blizzard turned and fired the rifle at her. It missed. Rattlesnake screamed a primal scream and stabbed the Icewing through the heart with her tail. Blizzard screamed as the poisonous barb sunk directly into her chest, blue blood flowing out of it.

She reached for the tail but Anthony came barreling in after Rattlesnake, who picked him up and threw him at Blizzard's head. He fired both mobile shotguns and Blizzard's head exploded.

Her brains splattered all over the wall. Swordfish screamed. Rattlesnake screamed. Anthony screamed. Rattlesnake wrestled her tail free quickly as the body fell to the ground, Blizzard's head reduced to her lower jaw and her chest was stabbed open, the wound dripping with poison and blood.

"THREE MOONS!" Rattlesnake shrieked, suddenly realizing what she had done. Tears fell from all three pairs of eyes. Swordfish was in shock. Blizzard was dead in front of him. "She was… she was…" Anthony said shakily.

 _This can't be real. This can't be real._ Talons could be heard coming down the hall, running towards the commotion. "GET OUT! DON'T COME IN HERE!" Anthony screamed. A dark light was coming from Blizzard's body.

And then, the fateful sound. The loud ringing noise. The sound of a demon transforming. The sound that had always meant the arrival of Adnachiel. The scales and blood faded away, and the shape of a large human-like creature appeared. The robe. That skull. The arrows. The dark skeleton appeared as the Demon's features formed around it.

The huntress had found her prey a long time ago. She just couldn't get herself to do it. Swordfish broke down into an inky blackness.

 **And so, the truth begins. I can't believe we're finally here. Everything comes with a cost.**


	46. Chapter 40: Huntress

_"Don't go digging too deep Swordfish."_

 _"Why do you act like that when nobody else is around? Why do you act like this only around me?" He asked her. "Well… despite being in the third circle, I find a lot of the Icewing pretentiousness to be insufferable. It's what contributed to the Tragedy of Prince Winter. But the other Icewings here would judge me too harshly if I_ _didn't_ _act like the rest of them. They could report back to the palace and I would lose my spot in the rankings."_

 _Blizzard remained a mystery to Swordfish. Her unfitting facial expressions and reactions. Her secret fighting skill. Her possible animus power. Swordfish studied her out of the corner of his eye as she looked at the scavengers, most likely plotting her course of action. Her crystal-blue eyes glittering in the sun. He liked her much better when she wasn't pretending to be a snob. Sure, she lost some of her elegance with her true self, but out of all the dragons Swordfish had met, she seemed like one of the most real ones he knew, along with Rattlesnake and Darkseer. They seemed true to themselves._

 _"Hey! We gotta focus on the race Blizzard!" Marie reminded. "Yeah, stop flirting you two!" Michael said, chuckling. "Hey!" Swordfish said, embarrassed._ _I don't like Blizzard like that._ _He thought to himself, looking at the equally embarrassed Blizzard. "We were_ _not_ _flirting!" She said angrily to Michael, who smiled and shrugged._ _I don't like her like that._ _Swordfish thought to himself again, his mind flashing to Rattlesnake, but as Blizzard flew ahead of him, Marie yelling something back to Michael, he found a voice whispering slight disagreement._

 _"Blizzard… what's wrong?" Swordfish asked quietly, enough so that Vine couldn't hear. "…What do you mean?" Blizzard asked after quickly wiping away the tear. "Why were you crying?" Swordfish whispered. Blizzard didn't say anything. She looked back at the sunrise. "I was just… thinking about how the Scorching will destroy all of this." Blizzard whispered, and then she slightly cringed, a look of frustration passing over her face._

 _Blizzard didn't respond. Swordfish shot a quick glance at her and once again, noticed the beauty of the sun glimmering in her eyes. He turned his attention back to the river. A Seawing was dropping crates onto a boat, and two men were arranging them into place. One of the men was whistling a tune. Swordfish felt the end of Blizzard's cold tail touch his, and the two twined their tails around each other, silently watching the river._

Swordfish felt something touch him. He snapped awake and he saw Anthony hitting him to wake him up. Swordfish quickly got to his feet. Blizzard had finished the transformation into Adnachiel. Vulture fired his mobile rifle at her from the doorway. The bullets went into her and pierced holes through her back. The demon hunched over and the holes seemed to fill themselves with a black, shiny substance. They healed quickly, and then Adnachiel dashed towards Swordfish.

Rattlesnake threw herself in front of Swordfish, brandishing her tail dangerously. "You need to get out of here." Anthony said urgently. "Quick, out the window!" Swordfish looked back at Rattlesnake. "What about her?!" He asked. Rattlesnake slashed with her talons at Adnachiel, but she dodged it easily. She grabbed Rattlesnake's wing with her talon-like hands that allowed her to climb things. Rattlesnake kicked Adnachiel, but didn't seem to hurt the demon at all. Adnachiel's bow formed out of thin air.

"…NOOO!" Swordfish screamed, stopping as he ran towards the window. Adnachiel's head snapped towards him. She dropped Rattlesnake and began to draw an arrow from her quiver. Rattlesnake jumped in front of her again but this time, Adnachiel grabbed her and threw her to the side, Rattlesnake hitting Swordfish's bed hard enough to break most of the shells on it.

Marie ran out from the crowd of dragons screaming in the halls with Tsunami close behind her. There was someone else there too. Swordfish recognized it as Pike. A dragonet Coral had assigned to guard Anemone when she went to the school.

Marie ran towards Adnachiel and fired a Kiboten dragon snare. The net began to unfurl in the air, but Adnachiel rolled out of the way. Tsunami slid in next to Rattlesnake, who was getting up. Tsunami flared her wings in the tight space, blocking a way for Adnachiel to go. "GO GO GO!" Anthony cried. Swordfish reluctantly went to the window to climb out.

" _Not this time."_ The voice of Adnachiel said in Swordfish's head. "YOU WANT MY STUDENTS? YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME!" "No!" Cried the voice of Pike in the doorway. "She'll kill you! You can't take her!" Adnachiel pulled an arrow from her quiver and drew back the bow. She was aimed directly at Tsunami's head. "I don't care." Tsunami said, her fear clearly showing in her eyes. Adnachiel aimed the arrow.

She suddenly snapped the bow downward and aimed underneath Tsunami's wing. She let the arrow fly. The arrow hit Pike directly in the head. He instantly collapsed, dead. Tsunami turned her head to look at her student. "TSUNAMI!" Swordfish cried. Tsunami turned back just in time before Adnachiel slammed into her. Tsunami caught the demon's fist with her talon. She pushed back, her arm shaking with the force. She began to push Adnachiel's fist back.

Adnachiel's other hand reached forward and grabbed Tsunami's throat. Rattlesnake let out a scream, but she couldn't seem to get up. "GO!" Anthony cried, but Swordfish couldn't get himself to move. Tsunami was choking under the force of Adnachiel's hand on her throat, which was getting tighter. Adnachiel was using two hands now to lift the Seawing up into the air. Swordfish couldn't move. It was like the scenario had broken his brain. Blizzard was going to kill Tsunami. Blizzard had killed Pike.

Just as it looked like Tsunami was about to suffocate, Adnachiel was suddenly flung back towards Cedar's bed. She was almost magnetized to the wall. Tsunami collapsed to the ground and began coughing. The dark eyes within the skull-like head of Adnachiel turned and looked at Swordfish, and then the doorway.

Standing in the doorway, over Pike, was Darkseer. He was completely unarmed. He seemed scared out of his mind, but he was glaring at the demon with intensity. He had used his animus magic. "Come on, let's get out of here." He said. Everyone began to run out of the room, Tsunami picking up the body of Pike as they left, still coughing. Rattlesnake limped out, obviously in pain.

Just Swordfish, Darkseer, and Blizzard remained. Swordfish walked up to the end of Cedar's bed. "Why…?" He asked through tears. "Blizzard… I trusted you." "BLIZZARD?!" Darkseer asked with terror and disbelief. Adnachiel put her head down. The pinging noise happened again. Swordfish didn't even cover his ears, he just glared angrily. Tears were streaming down his face as Blizzard appeared again. "I trusted you." Swordfish said with anger and sadness in his voice. "You betrayed me. You killed Rainfall. You killed so many others. You knew everything all along and decided to never tell us. WHAT WAS A LIE?! HOW ELSE HAVE YOU MISDIRECTED ME!? How about our friendship? Was that a lie too?!"

Blizzard looked up and she had tears streaming down her face as well. "No." She said quietly. "I only lied… about things that would hurt you." "Blizzard… what…?" Darkseer asked, in shock. "WELL THEN TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Swordfish yelled. "WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME!?" "It's not my choice. It's beyond both of us. You have to die, and I must do it now, before that chest is opened. You and Vine are messing with the order of the worlds. I have my orders from the King himself to kill you two. It's nothing you really did. But if you continue to live, it creates disorder in the worlds. The different worlds need to be kept working correctly, or everything falls into chaos." Blizzard spoke as if it wasn't her speaking. Almost like some kind of puppet.

Swordfish got closer. "So why did you become friends with me? Why did you save Vine and I from death so many times?" Blizzard sobbed. "Swordfish! Don't get closer!" Darkseer warned. "TELL ME!" Swordfish screamed at her, getting right up to her. "YOU TRAITOR!" Blizzard suddenly grabbed Swordfish's throat with her talons and lifted him into the air.

Darkseer ran towards Swordfish and began trying to pull him away from Blizzard. Swordfish couldn't breathe. She was so strong. She was going to crush his neck without even needing to suffocate him. Darkseer pulled as hard as he could. Swordfish stared down at Blizzard, who was closing her eyes, not looking at what she was doing. Tears streamed out of her eyes.

Her arms suddenly snapped in half. She screamed as her forearms fell to the ground, the blue blood spilling all over Swordfish. Swordfish fell backward into Darkseer, who must have used his power again. Blizzard screamed as the two ran out of the room. "I can't believe it…" Darkseer muttered under his breath as the two ran down the hall. Swordfish was speechless. He still couldn't process what was happening, but he was so angry he felt like he was going to be sick.

"I don't like to use my power, so I used something not as strong." Darkseer said. "Actually… I've never used my power before now. But I could see the future. If I didn't do something, you would die." "We need to go to the library." Swordfish said. "Rainfall's code is in my satchel. If she gets free, she will destroy it." "How could she get free of that spell?" Darkseer asked, out of breath from running. He really was out of shape. "Demons can shape shift. That's how she was hiding as Blizzard. She might transform into something and destroy the wall itself. I don't know how it fully works."

The pair ran into the library. Starflight and Fatespeaker were gathered in the corner. Fatespeaker was clutching the satchel. "He's back!" Fatespeaker said. She ran up to Swordfish and gave him the satchel. "What's happening?" Starflight asked in a panicked voice. "Blizzard is Adnachiel." Swordfish said, a part of him still not believing it. "She was hiding here the whole time. She killed Pike. She'll stop at nothing to kill Vine and I. We need to escape." "I have her trapped with a spell right now." Darkseer said. "You're an animus?!" Starflight asked, amazed, but also with so much anxiety it felt like a tangible thing. "Yeah. A mind reader and prophet too." Darkseer said as the four ran out of the room, Fatespeaker guiding Starflight.

"Well… did you see this coming?" Fatespeaker said. "Because… I didn't." Starflight exhaled loudly. "No. I can't see everything like Clearsight could. This wasn't a vision. But I think something is interfering with me. I can't see… a lot of things. It used to be much clearer. I think Falcon's in danger. I did see a Sandwing in a white hood fighting Adnachiel but I don't know if that's even relevant to us. That could be in another world entirely." "Did you say white hood?" Swordfish asked, remembering the two dragons who attacked Adnachiel in the world without a visitor. "Yeah. They have this weird white cloak on. Like you do, but white." Darkseer said, referring to the Old Monarchy cloak Swordfish was wearing.

Right before the dragonets ran out of the academy, a loud, high-pitched noise could be heard in the distance. "She's coming…" Swordfish said. "Is that what it sounds like?" Starflight asked. "Wait… that time when Rainfall died…" Darkseer said. "The high pitched noise… that was her transforming into Adnachiel." Swordfish remembered that day, and then remembered the noise of the talon scraping against rock before they left the caverns. She had been following them.

When they left the academy, they found the rest of the dragons waiting for them. Anthony and Marie were there too. "We need to go." Fatespeaker cried. "She's coming!" "What about Pike's body?" Sunny asked. She had been crying. "We can go get him afterwards. He's safe in the prey center." "We need to go now." Tsunami said, a look of terror in her eyes. "That thing is unlike anything I have ever seen." "Where will we go?" Someone cried. "Glory." Tsunami ordered. "But we need to go. _Now._ " There was something extra scary about seeing Tsunami being so scared. Tsunami was the greatest fighter out of the Dragonets of Destiny, and Adnachiel had almost killed her in under thirty seconds.

"Aren't we missing a student from the Amber winglet?" Clay asked. "Where's Blizzard?" Tsunami flew over to the confused Clay and whispered something in his ear. A look of horror washed over his face.

As the dragons took off from the ground, Swordfish heard Peril talking to Turtle and Kinkajou. "I bet I could take down this attacker." "I'm not so sure about that." Turtle responded. "Did you see how scared Tsunami was?" "Behind us!" Darkseer yelled. Swordfish twisted his head to see Adnachiel at the entrance. "FLY!" Someone yelled. The dragons began to fly around the side of the mountain, but Adnachiel used her claw-like hands to latch onto the rocks and quickly climb up the side of the mountain. "GET OUT OF HERE! GET SWORDFISH AND VINE OUT OF HER REACH!" Tsunami bellowed. Adnachiel kept ascending the mountain until she was at the same level as the escaping dragons.

 _Damn you Blizzard._ Swordfish thought. _You made a big mistake waiting to kill us. You had so many opportunities, and now you're stuck with the one where we have reinforcements and an easy escape route._ Swordfish remembered her tears and felt a slight pang of guilt for his thoughts, but seeing the demon draw out her bow once more made him feel like he was justified in his anger.

Adnachiel stopped and suddenly put her bow away, and then jumped outward. The jump was huge. It cleared twice as much space as a normal jump should. "AHHHHH!" Cried a Rainwing, Coconut, as the demon landed on him. He began to descend under her weight as she jumped off again, landing on Clay's back. Coconut swiped at her with his claws, but she simply fired an arrow at him and he fell out of the sky, dead.

Swordfish heard a cry of anguish from Kinkajou as her friend fell to his death. Marie was on Clay's back, riding him, and she fired multiple bullets at the demon, who walked towards her, unfazed. The bullet holes simply healing themselves with that dark substance. Adnachiel picked up Marie and tossed her to the side.

"MARIE!" Anthony yelled, who was on Azure's back. Azure flew downward to catch the falling woman. Clay spun in the air in an attempt to get Adnachiel off his back. "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!" He screamed, but the demon had latched onto his back with her claws. She jumped off of Clay and landed on Changbai, an Icewing. He screamed and spun as Clay had immediately. Adnachiel didn't have time to latch on. She began to fall through the air.

Swordfish watched with horror as she drew her bow and fired at Changbai almost instantly after falling. The Icewing made a screaming noise, but it was cut off as he died instantly. As the body fell, someone screamed. Adnachiel grabbed onto the body, and as it fell, made another jump off the body, this time, propelling herself towards a Mudwing named Marsh, one of Clay's sibs. Marsh shrieked as Adnachiel grabbed onto his talons. He kicked hard in an attempt to get her off. Adnachiel began to fall, but then the noise began to echo through the night as Adnachiel turned back into Blizzard. Swordfish watched as the demon began to transform back into the Icewing he had once called his friend.

Blizzard reappeared and flew towards Marsh again. He screamed as he realized who her new target was. Blizzard grabbed Marsh by the neck and sped down to a ledge on the mountain. She threw Marsh to the ground, and an arrow appeared in her hand, appearing in the same way Adnachiel would form. A dark light and the dark shape of the object appearing. She aimed it at Marsh's throat, who was pinned down on the ledge. "CLAY! BRING ME SWORDFISH OR VINE, DEAD OR ALIVE, AND I WON'T KILL YOUR BROTHER! THE TIME IS NOW, BIGWINGS! NOBODY HERE CAN HURT ME! COMPLY, AND LESS OF YOUR STUDENTS WILL HAVE TO DIE, SUNNY!"

Swordfish looked at Clay with horror. Peril began flying towards Blizzard, but she transformed into Adnachiel, making Peril slow down. When the demon appeared, she was aiming her bow at the Skywing. " _Don't get any closer. I'll kill anyone else who tries to interfere. These arrows kill anything they hit. I want two dragonets, and two dragonets only."_ She said to the dragons of Jade Mountain in their minds. " _Clay, bring me one of them, or Marsh dies."_ She aimed the arrow at Marsh, who whimpered.

Swordfish watched with horror as Clay turned to him with tears in his eyes. "Whoa. Clay. Can't we… We can take her… It's only Blizzard…" But Clay began flying at Swordfish at full speed. "HEY! CLAY!" Sunny yelled. But the Mudwing was dead set on Swordfish. Swordfish began trying to fly away, but he was tired and weak from a lack of water. Clay was big and flew fast. He easily caught up with Swordfish. Swordfish screamed as he felt the strong claws of Clay grab him and yank him backward. " _I'm sorry…"_ He choked. " _But… I can't lose them… Not when they depend… on me…"_ Swordfish was flown towards Adnachiel. "NO!" Delta yelled, and she flew towards Clay, but Tsunami held her back. "Someone has to die, and Clay's made the decision." She said sadly. "Isn't there another way?" Sunny sobbed. "One life is not over another." Tsunami said grimly. "…We've already lost. Clay has wanted to live with his siblings and be their bigwings ever since we escaped Queen Scarlet. Swordfish is not greater than Marsh." "But… but…" Vine sputtered. "Are you petitioning for Marsh's death?!" Tsunami growled. "Are you petitioning for Swordfish's?" Darkseer growled threateningly.

Swordfish was thrown at Adnachiel's feet by Clay, who had a terrified look on his face. Adnachiel quickly released Marsh and pinned Swordfish to the ground. Marsh quickly stood up and lunged at Adnachiel. She blocked the attack. " _I spared you. Don't mess it up."_

Marsh took to the sky, shaking, and with tears falling down his face. Clay didn't look at Swordfish. Swordfish looked up at the Mudwing with disbelief. _Clay was throwing him out to die. Clay._ "I'm sorry." Clay said, and turned to take off.

Adnachiel suddenly threw a small, metallic disc at Clay's back talons. It was sharp, and cut the back of his talons. Right on the tendons. Clay screamed and fell to the ground as the wound bled. He had been immobilized. Without his back talons, he couldn't get enough momentum to lift off, nor could he walk away. Adnachiel aimed the bow at the Mudwing. " _Peril, kill Vine, or I kill Clay."_

Swordfish turned his head, terrified of what would happen. " _I'm sorry this has to happen Swordfish. If you had just submitted and let it happen back there, none of this would have had to happen."_ Adnachiel said. "Well then here's your chance Blizzard." Swordfish growled. "Kill me. I'm at your mercy." Adnachiel pulled out her bow and aimed an arrow at Swordfish's head. Swordfish was terrified, but he tried to keep a straight face. Adnachiel stopped. Swordfish was right. She couldn't do it. She was still too conflicted. But was Peril?

Swordfish turned his head to look at the events unfolding to his right. To his horror, Peril was slowly flying towards the Rainwing. "PERIL! STOP!" Vulture cried, but judging from the steam coming from Peril's eyes, it didn't seem like she had any intention of doing that. Clay's life was in danger. And the only way to save him, was to kill an innocent dragonet. But Peril had done that before, hadn't she? This was simple.

Peril suddenly stopped in the air. She tried to fly forward, but it was like she was stuck. Fatespeaker turned her head towards Darkseer. "You… enchanted her…" She said, awestruck and terrified. "LET HER MOVE!" Cried a voice, and Tsunami flew right at Darkseer. "And kill Vine? No way!" The Nightwing cried. Tsunami slashed at Darkseer, who screamed as the Seawing drew blood.

The dragonets of Jade Mountain Academy broke out into screaming and yelling. Swordfish saw Sunny crying as Delta screamed at her. "I WILL NOT LET ANYONE I'M SUPPOSED TO PROTECT DIE!" Tsunami screaming as she tried to attack Darkseer again. Clay was in tears on the ground nearby. Everyone he cared about, was about to hurt each other, and kill each other. Peril just stared at Vine with an intensity that could melt an entire city.

"ENOUGH!" Cried a voice. It was Turtle. "Enchant Peril so that she can move again." He said. Peril suddenly burst forward towards Vine, who screamed.

And then…

Adnachiel was suddenly struck by a Kiboten dragon snare. Swordfish sprung up from his position as the demon was thrown to the side. He turned, expecting to see Azure with Anthony or Marie on her back, but instead, there was a Sandwing in a white hood. He landed on the ledge next to Swordfish and Swordfish saw he had a scar on his snout.

The Sandwing walked over to Adnachiel as Swordfish got up and ran over to Clay. The screaming and fighting amongst the dragons stopped as the strange dragon walked over to Adnachiel. Swordfish got up and went to Clay's side. Sunny was already there, worriedly looking at the wounds on Clay's talons. "Why are you here, Adnachiel?" The Sandwing asked. A voice suddenly cried out from the mass of students. It was Kinkajou. "…Qibli?!" She asked, shocked.

The Sandwing sighed and took off his hood. He had a scar down his snout. He was wearing two earrings. A white teardrop-shaped one, and a golden one. It had two dragons twisting around each other. He was wearing a kind of protective armor on his chest, and he had mobile rifles on his forearms. They were different from any kind Swordfish had seen. They looked much more advanced.

" _You've made a horrible mistake."_ Adnachiel hissed. " _You almost disappeared off my radar, but you just had to show up and get in the way again, Qibli."_ Swordfish watched the Sandwing with awe. He calmly walked up to Adnachiel, and spread his wings. "Tell me why you're here. Why do you want to kill two of the students? I thought you said that you wouldn't touch this school." " _Don't you know? I thought someone like you would."_

"QIBLI!" Turtle cried as he flew towards his old friend. "Stay back Turtle!" Qibli yelled. "Nobody get any closer!" Adnachiel just stared at the Sandwing. Rattlesnake flew down and put the Earring of Sola on Clay's ear, forcefully piercing though his ear with her talon. "I'm sorry Clay, but this will help." She said.

Qibli pulled something that looked like a dart out of a pouch and attached it to something on his mobile rifle. He got closer. "Come on…" Qibli said threateningly. Adnachiel made a strange noise. She began to transform again. Swordfish though she was turning back into Blizzard, but she didn't. She looked like Blizzard, but she was smaller. Swordfish looked at the dragon. She looked like Blizzard, but it wasn't Blizzard. Blizzard was bigger, more muscular, and looked more hardened. This dragon had very different eyes and looked a lot less dangerous.

Blizzard twirled around in the netting, her tail easily cutting through the netting, which Swordfish found strange, because Kiboten dragon snares were supposed to be made of much stronger material. The dragon ripped out of the net and flew towards Swordfish, talons outstretched. Qibli fired the needle at the Icewing, but it missed. Qibli cursed and pulled another needle out of his pouch.

Swordfish took to the sky and dodged Blizzard's attack. Peril came flying down and pummeled into the Icewing, who screamed as Peril dug her claws into her back. The wounds began healing themselves, but the fire was burning almost as fast as the black substance would heal the wounds. Whatever form this was, it wasn't as strong as Blizzard's regular form. Swordfish wondered why she chose it.

Blizzard suddenly fell from the sky as Qibli fired the other dart. It landed right in Blizzard's neck. She began to fall silent, and then fell from the sky. She missed the ledge entirely and Swordfish watched her fall onto a ledge below. She was unconscious. "What… was that?" Marsh asked Qibli. "Tranquilizer dart." Qibli replied. "Once I baited her into a dragon form, I was able to knock her out with it."

Qibli flew downward towards the dragonet, who was lying unconscious on the ground. He had just barely gotten down to the demon when a bright light suddenly shone from the ground. Qibli backed away from the body, rifle aimed at it. A rift suddenly opened beneath the body, and Blizzard fell in. Qibli looked up at his friends, who were flying down towards him.

"Qibli!" Turtle cried, tears coming from his eyes. "Where have you been?!" Qibli brushed wings with his old friends, except Peril for obvious reasons. "Somewhere you cannot follow." Qibli replied. Swordfish flew down to the Sandwing. "What does that earring mean?" He asked, exhausted from all the flying. "… I can't say." Qibli replied warily, giving Swordfish a suspicious look. "We all thought you died!" Kinkajou yelled, gold and pink shimmering through her scales. "…Maybe it would have been better off that way." Qibli said softly. "Look, I'm sorry, but I have to go now. She won't be unconscious forever, and we need to track her down. Don't follow me." This Qibli seemed so… different from the Qibli Swordfish had heard about in the stories of the Hunt for Prince Winter. "B…but." Turtle started, but Qibli put his hood up, covering the earring, and flew off towards the desert. Swordfish watched him go. _What did he know?_ Swordfish turned back towards the dragons of Jade Mountain. They were all scared and afraid. Adnachiel had taken three lives and turned friends into enemies. It was the Hunt for Prince Winter for this school all over again.

. . .

Swordfish, Vine, Rattlesnake, Vulture, Darkseer, Delta, Anthony, and Marie walked into Rainfall's room. Swordfish was holding the black box that contained the code. The group surrounded the modest wooden and metal box. Swordfish remembered that day when Rainfall told him about what he had seen. So much had changed since then.

Was this the cost of knowing the truth? Swordfish remembered what Blizzard had said. " _You can't open that chest. Rainfall put something in there that will end the world. The end of everything."_ Swordfish looked at those around him. He could almost see the ghosts of others around him. Rainfall, Cedar, Savanna, Michael, Polar, Blizzard. They all should have been here for this.

Swordfish stared at the code in his hand. There was so much that needed to be done, yet so much had happened. Was he ready? Had he done enough to deserve to know this? Swordfish had started this journey, a scared, naive dragonet. He felt like he still was, but things had changed so much. Swordfish had learned so much truth already. The world of Pyrrhia, queens and dragonets of destiny was over. Nightwing plots and wars between tribes. Mysterious animus magic, scavengers running around, and just being an innocent dragonet. It was all gone.

Swordfish had suffered so much betrayal and loss for this. He had gone back in time for this. He left his own dimension for this. He replaced another version of himself for this. He had killed for this. Barley's face was burned into his mind. Cedar was gone. Savanna was gone. Michael was gone. Polar was gone. Blizzard was gone. This was not the world Swordfish had started this journey in. It was something new now.

Swordfish put his claw into the mechanism and rolled the locks into place. 1… 2… 2… 6… 1… 3… 2… 6.

The chest made a _click_. The lid came loose. Swordfish looked around at the dragons and humans around him. "Well, open it." Anthony said.

Swordfish lifted open the chest. Inside was one single scroll. It was similar to the one Swordfish already had. Swordfish lifted it out of the chest. "What… did Rainfall… know?"

. . .

Cassriel ran towards the Icewing. She was unconscious. He had saved her from Qibli at the last second. If he had waited any longer to open that rift, Qibli would have taken Adnachiel to who knows where.

She was in her original form. Cassriel slapped the unconscious dragonet with his hand. "Wake up!" He cried. The dragonet snapped awake. She was breathing heavily. "Did… did you kill them?" Cassriel asked worriedly. Adnachiel's eyes were wide. "…No… Even resorting to your plan on who to use as leverage, it didn't work. That damned Sandwing…" Cassriel felt his heart drop. "The King has a backup plan." He said softly. "But you're not going to like it." Adnachiel began to sob. She had guessed what it would be.

. . .

Swordfish rolled open the scroll. Everyone around him was craning their necks to see what was written.

 _I can only pray whoever is reading this is an ally of mine or Anthony's. If this were to fall into the wrong hands, horrible things would happen._

 _I have many observations about this world, but in order for any of it to be understood, some prior knowledge needs to be known. So I guess this will be my story, and how I ended up in this world most likely made by Cassriel._

 _It all started years ago… When I was a carefree dragonet living in the Rainforest, until one fateful day I came face to face with the cruel truth of the world._


	47. Chapter 41: Truth

"I can still see you." Bromeliad said. "If you want to camouflage yourself, you need to take in the environment around you." "It's because he doesn't sleep during sun time." Muttered Tualang, the instructor of the Rainwing dragonets. Bromeliad, Tualang's apprentice, turned and looked at the Rainwing with a look of curiosity on her face. "You don't sleep during sun time?" She asked.

Rainfall sighed as he turned his scales back to normal. He didn't have good enough camouflage because he didn't sleep during sun time. While the other Rainwings would waste their time sleeping in the sun like a bunch of lazy sloths, Rainfall would explore beyond the village. He had a makeshift map of the forest he was drawing with a piece of charcoal on a large leaf.

Rainfall was not like most other Rainwings. He believed there was more to life than sleeping around, collecting fruit and flowers, and flying around the jungle. There was something that had perplexed him for years. Ever since Rainfall was a tiny dragonet, just learning about the world from the other dragons.

" _This is the village. All the Rainwings live here. Around us is the forest. It is filled with wildlife and plants. You will live here too." Said the older dragon. The young Rainfall looked up at her. "Does the forest go on forever?" He asked her. "No." The Rainwing replied. "Then what's outside the forest?" Rainfall asked._

The other Rainwings didn't seem to care about the world beyond the village and the forest that surrounded it. Rainfall knew that there other tribes of dragons out there. He had heard stories from scouts that repelled dragons the color of the mud and dragons the color of the sand with sleeping darts.

The other Rainwings were contempt with the life of ignorance. Rainfall wasn't. The outside world very quickly became Rainfall's obsession. He pestered the oldest dragons in the tribe for information about the world.

Endless fields of ice. A desert that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Mountains that stretched further than any tree in the whole forest. A fertile swampland that housed life Rainfall couldn't even imagine. Islands that dotted the ocean, which flowed in every direction. And other tribes of dragons that lived different lives. Dragons who lived in a world beyond the rainforest.

All of that supposedly existed beyond the trees. Yet the Rainwings didn't care about any of it. They were obsessed with things that Rainfall could care less about. Flower picking? Really?

Rainfall was not old enough to leave and go on such a large journey alone. He couldn't fly for that long, and apparently, there was something dangerous happening out there.

Rainfall couldn't spend his time lazily laying in the sun like the other Rainwings. He refused to do something so pointless. A world was beyond the trees and he wanted to see it. A part of him hated how resigned to ignorance his tribe was. The world was hiding something from him, and he was going to find out the truth, at all costs.

"You need to sleep during sun time. It's unhealthy for you to not." Bromeliad said to Rainfall. "Why would you sleep in the middle of the day like that all the time?" Rainfall asked. "Don't you know?" Another student, Orchid, asked. "The sun recharges our scales. It makes us happier, smarter, and more vibrant."

"Smarter. Yeah right." Said one of Rainfall's only friends, Chameleon. Being different like Rainfall was didn't make him very popular. Chameleon was born with a snout defect that made it hard for him to breathe, and sleep for more than an hour. Because of this, his scales were stuck as a lime-green color. Rainfall didn't think that his lack of sun time was completely to blame for this, and wondered if the snout deformity went further than just breathing, because Rainfall hardly slept during sun time at all, but he could change his scales. They were admittedly dull, but Rainfall didn't care.

"Yes. Smarter." Orchid said. "They also make us less grumpy, maybe you two should try it, and maybe you'd be happy like the rest of us are." "Hey Orchid, maybe they'd be happier if you left them alone." Said Marvelous, walking up behind Orchid. Marvelous was Rainfall's other friend. She didn't have anything that made her different from the other Rainwings except that she was nice to Rainfall and Chameleon.

The three of them did everything together. Chameleon made everyone else uncomfortable and nobody could relate to Rainfall. Marvelous was their connection to the rest of the tribe.

Orchid gave Marvelous a look, and then walked off. "You know, it really would make you less stressed." Marvelous said to Rainfall. "I don't want to be happy living here. If I become complacent here, I'll never see beyond the forest." "That's one way of looking at it." Chameleon sighed.

"Rainfall, you've told us all about the world outside the forest, but what if it's not everything you say it is? What if you get there and it's dangerous? What if you get hurt, or die? What if the rainforest is the best place to be?" Marvelous asked.

"…Well… surrounding the land is the ocean. Some say it goes on forever, but I don't think so. There's more even beyond our world. On the other side of the ocean there has to be more. I don't think Pyrrhia exists alone." Rainfall said. "You think about that too much." Chameleon said. "If you're constantly focused on what's out there, then you can't appreciate what's already here." "Speaking of which…" Marvelous said. "Race you to the weird rock!"

Rainfall and Chameleon took off after Marvelous. "Hey! You got a head start!" Chameleon cried. The weird rock was a boulder leaning against a tree that Rainfall had found while exploring. He had marked it on his map, but the three of them hadn't gotten a chance to check it out yet. But today was the day. Rainfall had labeled it "The Weird Rock" because of the creepy feeling it gave him, and how it just seemed to appear there one day. He hadn't really looked at it all too well.

The three dragonets left the village and began tree gliding to where the boulder was. There was a small waterfall nearby that fell into a bubbling pool. Rainfall pointed out the boulder when it came into view. "There. It just has a weird feeling to it." Rainfall said. Chameleon flew down towards the boulder. He looped around to the other side of it. "Whoa! Come check this out!" He cried. Rainfall and Marvelous flew down and looked at what Chameleon had seen.

Approaching the boulder gave the dragonets shivers. On the other side of the boulder was a massive hole. It was a tunnel actually. Rainfall looked at the other side of the boulder. It didn't make sense. The tunnel was long, yet this was a boulder, not a cave.

"Wait, how…?" Marvelous asked. "Where does it go?" "Well… there's only one way to find out." Rainfall said. He stepped into the tunnel. The weird feeling increased. It was dark. He couldn't see in front of him. But he suddenly saw a light ahead of him. The tunnel kept going and turned abruptly to the right, and someone with fire was walking down the tunnel, and would be here soon. Rainfall turned around, scared. " _Hide!"_ He whispered to his friends. Marvelous ran to the other side of the clearing and turned invisible. Rainfall did the same, but he lay down in some brush to help. Chameleon was the one who had to take flight and hide in a treetop that had the same hue as he did, and hope they didn't see him.

"You've done excellent work Stonemover." Said a voice near the exit of the tunnel. And then two dragons black as the night sky walked into the sunlight. They were unlike anything Rainfall had ever seen. Another tribe. _The Nightwings._ Rainfall thought to himself, remembering Queen Grandeur telling him of dragons as dark as night who had power unlike any other tribe. Reading minds and seeing the future.

One of the dragons was massive and old. The other was a lot smaller, and had a strange look to him. "Thank you Morrowseer." The one named Stonemover said. "Make the next tunnel as well as this one, and the next step of the plan shall begin. The Nightwings are very lucky that the genes of Prince Arctic still run within the tribe."

 _What are they talking about?_ Rainfall thought, watching the black dragons with terrified curiosity. He could see slight flickers of pale green where Marvelous stood as the Nightwings walked away from the boulder. "And you're sure they won't see it?" Stonemover asked. "Mastermind and others have been watching the tribe for a while now. They're all so stupid, they won't bother to even look this far." Rainfall would have been hurt if it wasn't the truth. He watched the Nightwings walk into the forest.

. . .

 _I disliked my tribe. Did I hate them? Maybe. I was young and all I was concerned with was the outside world. The Rainwings did not suit me. I had no idea what these Nightwings were doing. At the time, I thought this tunnel would be my way of leaving my tribe and finally living amongst dragons who I could appreciate life with. I was right, but not in the way I expected._

 _I thought that the rest of the world must be so much better than the rainforest. I was wrong. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time with the necklace, and tell myself to stop. I was going down a dark path disguised as a path of light. I was going down a tunnel._

 _My only goal, as it was for so long, was to find out the truth. I felt like the world was hiding something from me._

 _I almost did give up too, but a certain dragon stopped me._

. . .

The sun was going down. The trees blocked the sunset, but the rays of the dying light were cast in the sky above the forest. Rainfall was waiting to see the queen. There wasn't a very long line tonight. There was someone whose orange scales showed how frustrated they were with how long Grandeur must have been taking with whoever was currently in there in front of him.

Rainfall, despite Marvelous' warnings that nobody would care, was going to tell the queen about what he and his friends had seen earlier. "What is taking her so long?!" Grumbled the orange dragon in front of Rainfall. A purple dragon walked up behind Rainfall and skipped the line. She entered the hut Grandeur was in. It was Magnificent. The queens were rotating.

Grandeur and a blue dragon left the hut, and Magnificent entered, the orange dragon following her in. Rainfall turned and looked at Grandeur. One of the few Rainwings who seemed to have actual intelligence. _Maybe… telling her would be better than telling Magnificent._ "Grandeur." Rainfall said as she passed. The ancient dragon turned and looked at him. "Rainfall." She said.

"I know you're not queen right now, but I thought you should know that two Nightwings came out of a weird tunnel. They said that the tribe wouldn't notice the tunnel, which makes me think they're up to something." Rainfall sputtered out.

Grandeur sleepily looked at Rainfall. "After all my time as queen, the second I swap out, somebody comes with something actually worth my time?" She chuckled. "Where is the tunnel?" "It's on my map." Rainfall said. "Map?" Grandeur asked. "Yeah. I've been mapping out the forest on a leaf with some charcoal." Rainfall said, showing her the leaf he had. "I'm hoping one day I can get my claws on some paper before the leaf rots too much."

Grandeur chuckled again. "You really are unique." She said. "There aren't many Rainwings that would even know what to do with paper." She paused and looked up at the sky.

"Once upon a time, the tribe was very different from this. Our camouflage wasn't just something that looked pretty. It was used to trick other dragons. Disappear and hide from invaders, or become invisible and take an entire fortress. There was a time where we were the most stable tribe in Pyrrhia. Where others floundered we succeeded. There was a time when we were the terror of the south. Our venom was our weapon and we took no prisoners." Rainfall listened intently. He had once heard that the Rainwings weren't always like this.

"But it was after we became convinced that we were unconquerable. After it was realized that nobody could take the forest. We had all the resources a tribe like ours would need. Would it really matter if we isolated ourselves from those who would fight an endless war?" Grandeur had sparks of red in her scales, as if just retelling the story made her angry. "It was unconsciously decided that we didn't need to care about the outside world. Nobody dared invade. We had no more reasons to invade others. We had all the land we could need. We could just focus on fruitless things like fruit.

Grandeur turned to Rainfall. "Our tribe has fallen a great height, and its dragons like you who will save it." "But… I'm just one dragonet." Rainfall said. "I can't change this tribe." "Don't give up." Grandeur said. "When I became queen, I didn't think I could take it. I had killed my mother, and with her, my only guidance to ruling the militaristic tribe of the Rainwings." Rainfall remembered how Grandeur once told him about how challenges used to be.

"I thought I would send the tribe to die. I thought I would be a horrible military leader. What happened to the tribe is in part, my fault." Grandeur said. The sun had gone down now, and the stars were out. "When I saw what I had done, I believed I _had_ doomed the tribe. We had become ignorant, and an easy target for enemies. But I'm still here, aren't I? I'm still queen. I kept on believing. I learned to always keep pressing forward. Persistence."

Rainfall looked at the elderly dragon in awe. "Don't give up Rainfall. If you fall, pick yourself back up, and maybe you will inspire other dragonets. Maybe a new generation can right the wrongs of the old one." She turned to leave. "What about the tunnel?!" Rainfall cried. "Tomorrow." She said. "Tonight, it's late. The current queen is probably asleep already, and we would need her permission. Don't worry, I'll help." She said.

Rainfall looked at the boulder on his map. _But… if we can't give up… then this has to be done now._

. . .

 _Grandeur's story and the meaning behind it had spoken to me. That I shouldn't feel bad that I was different, because I could help the future of the tribe. Maybe I could have. Maybe if I had just listened to her, nothing would have happened. I would've seen the outside world another way. But my curiosity wouldn't leave that tunnel alone._

 _To this day, I don't know the whole story behind it, but I know it was part of the Nightwing plot to take the rainforest._

 _That very night, Chameleon, Marvelous, and I went back to the boulder. When I left the village that night, I didn't know that would be the last time I would ever see it._

 _That night, my life would end, and another would begin._

. . .

"I can't believe we're doing this." Marvelous grumbled. "Some of us enjoy sleeping during the night too." "We can't count on Grandeur." Rainfall said. "Those dragons were up to something, and we need to find out." "I seriously doubt it's this important." Chameleon said. "Can we please go back to sleep?"

"But what if it is!" Rainfall cried. "Those Nightwings might be invaders! We need to stop them!" "Grandeur's story finally pushed you off the deep end, didn't it?" Chameleon bit. "You're not some kind of savior of the tribe." "I know that!" Rainfall said. "But if nobody here is even willing to leave the village, if another tribe comes through, we're going to be crushed! It's been decades upon decades since the Rainwings fought last, who knows what new strategies are out there!? Who knows what new technology they have?! Didn't one of the scouts say a Mudwing said that the other tribes were in a war?"

"What will you do if there _is_ an invasion?" Marvelous asked. "What will _you_ be able to do?" "I'll tell Grandeur." Rainfall said. "And what can she do?" Chameleon asked. "Raise an army? Get help? No, the Rainwings won't listen to her. If this other tribe is really going to do something, we can't do anything." "We have our venom." Rainfall said quietly. The other two fell silent. "We don't use that on living things, Rainfall." Marvelous said softly. "It's our greatest weapon." Rainfall whispered.

When the dragonets approached the boulder, they lay down in the brush and bramble. They watched and waited for someone to come by. " _Okay Marvelous, go check the tunnel."_ Rainfall said. Marvelous sighed and turned invisible. She walked out to the tunnel, and quietly walked inside.

The jungle around Rainfall and Chameleon was as noisy as ever. Thankfully, it was a clear night, so the moons illuminated the clearing by the waterfall. "Where do you think it leads?" Chameleon asked. "I don't know. It shouldn't even exist. It's like its magic." Rainfall replied.

The two waited for Marvelous to exit. They were silent as the rainforest clattered with noise. She eventually came out, a pale green. Her eyes were wide. "It just keeps going!" She cried. "One of you go with me. We should tie vines to ourselves so that the last one can keep us safe here!"

The birds suddenly stopped. All that remained was the water dripping down the leaves. " _Wait…"_ Chameleon whispered.

Chameleon screamed as black talons grabbed him from behind. Rainfall let out a shriek and saw Marvelous turn invisible once more before his vision was suddenly ripped away from him as the Nightwings grabbed him as well.

Rainfall felt something slip over him. "I GOT HIM!" Said the voice of Rainfall's captor. "I got mine." Said the other Nightwing, who had Chameleon. "They really don't know what they're doing, do they? First the yelling, then not even bothering to change scales. This one was pale green!"

"Should we take them to Mastermind?" Asked Rainfall's captor. "I don't know if he would want these dragonets. They're really young." Responded the other. "True. Maybe we should just kill them." "Kill a dragonet? Really?" "They know." Growled the Nightwing. "We can't let them warn the others."

Rainfall whimpered. "You're right." Said the captor. He pulled Rainfall out of the bag. Rainfall was lifted into the air along with Chameleon. "Sorry dragonets." Said Chameleon's captor. "You were at the wrong place at the wrong time." "I doubt they'll even realize these two are gone." Said the dragon who was about to kill Rainfall.

The shape of Marvelous' face suddenly appeared across the clearing, her eyes wide. "DO IT MARVELO-" Rainfall began, but he was gagged quickly. "Quiet!" Hissed the Nightwing. And then it happened.

Marvelous appeared, red and pale green. She opened her mouth wide and bared her fangs. The black liquid came spouting out. It arced up, and began to descend towards the Nightwing, who screamed, and jerked backward just in time.

The venom caught Rainfall directly in the chest. He screamed. Marvelous shrieked. Rainfall was dropped from the sky. The venom was burning away his scales. He saw the Nightwing grab Marvelous, and then everything began to go dark. He heard a sound like a bird screeching as Marvelous was attacked. The venom was eating away at his chest. He felt it creeping along his scales, burning away his flesh as the warped screaming continued. He saw something like blood in the air. The trees were warping away, twisting into monkey tails. Rainfall felt his thoughts begin to disappear. Everything was ending. He couldn't even feel the pain anymore.

And then, he was awake again. He saw something that looked like a claw descending from the sky. It was bright, and shone of hope. " _ **Hello Rainfall.**_ " Said the voice. " _ **I am Cassriel, and you are about to die. But I can help you. A second chance can be yours.**_ "

Rainfall didn't know what to say. " _ **If you decline, you will die now. It will be over, and you will face judgement.**_ " Said Cassriel. " _ **And then, you will leave everything behind. You're so young. You have so much of life left to experience. It would be a shame to lose it all now.**_ " Rainfall thought for what seemed like years. He could feel the world's death and rebirth around him. Plants dying, but new seeds sprouting. Animals dying and rotting into the earth, but new ones being born. There was still so much beyond the rainforest, and he hadn't seen any of it.

" _ **Death, or rebirth. What do you choose?**_ "

Rainfall took the paw-like claw of Cassriel with his own, which didn't seem to exist. He felt himself be lifted up. Out of the world and into a new plane of existence. He felt something change within him, as if something within his soul had been lost, and replaced with something new. There was darkness all around him. The only thing that existed was Cassriel's arm.

And then, Rainfall was stuck. He was in some kind of seat. He was strapped down by something. He realized he couldn't breathe very well, and began gasping for air. He looked up and saw a white dragonet about his age. She was in the same situation. It was dark, but there appeared to be smooth, metallic walls on all sides of the two. The Icewing across from Rainfall was just as terrified as he was.

" _ **Welcome visitors.**_ " The voice of Cassriel echoed out. " _ **You are here at the right time. If you are not prepared for what's ahead, leave now.**_ " Rainfall realized Cassriel was talking to somebody else. " _ **I am Cassriel, Hell's electoral 'poet.' I have two dragonets right here. A Rainwing named Rainfall, and an Icewing named Frost. One will die, the other will become our main character. The choice is yours, visitors.**_ "

Rainfall locked eyes with the Icewing. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew he was in danger. " _ **The voting will end in 24 hours, and the story will be taken off the archive.**_ " Cassriel said. The Icewing struggled against the bonds, but to no avail. " _ **Whichever name is said more, will die.**_ " Cassriel hissed from beyond the strange room, but Rainfall realized it just sounded that way. The terrifying shape of a large shadow was right there. It was tall and slender, and looked nothing like a dragon. Rainfall tried to speak but his mouth didn't work. No words seemed to come to mind.

" _ **The choice is yours.**_ " Cassriel said, and then the floor of the room collapsed. Rainfall, Frost, and Cassriel fell through. The chair seemed to disappear. Rainfall looked around at the world around him. He was falling from a black square suspended in the air. Around him seemed to be a blank, dark space. The floor seemed to be made out of a glassy substance, and it looked like there was land beneath the clear floor. Suspended in the air along with the dark square of a room, were shining orbs. There was something in each orb, like each of them were bubbles that reflected something from another world. Rainfall landed on the glassy floor, unable to use his wings, but it didn't hurt. Frost did the same. Cassriel landed on his feet. He was a tall creature with what looked like the skull of a strange monkey, except it was completely blank. It had no nose, eyes, mouth, or anything, and had tall, slender horns that reached into the air.

There were two other figures nearby. A tall, dark, robed figure, which had a hood that covered where its face would be. There was also a strange dragon that didn't look like any tribe Rainfall had ever seen. She had grey scales, red eyes, and four horns. "Abyss, Butmono, what do you want?" Cassriel asked, sounding annoyed.

"What were you doing?" The dragon asked. "Experiments for the king." Cassriel responded. "And it was going well until _you two_ decided to ruin it. Now I'll have to kill both of them." Cassriel turned to Rainfall and Frost. Two tendrils of a dark substance formed out of the glassy floor and pointed themselves at the two dragonets. Rainfall couldn't scream or do anything, his voice was still stolen.

"You're really continuing with those experiments?" The one named Abyss asked. "Even after Lahad and Zablah said you should stop?" "They don't realize what this could do!" Cassriel argued. "Those on the King's Council worry too much about inheritance. They choose only to think about possible negatives, and not on possible positives."

"Cassriel, why don't you calm down with the Vines of Rose?" Butmono said, gesturing with her wing to the tendrils that had risen out of the ground. "Butmono, can you take Cassriel to Hell? I'm sure Zablah would like to have a conversation with him." Abyss asked. "I'll take care of the dragonets." Abyss pointed at Rainfall and Frost. The floor beneath them opened up into some kind of hole, and they fell in.

The two landed in the dirt and rolled down a hill. When Rainfall stopped, he realized he could move again. Frost had rolled down and landed next to him. Rainfall got up and studied the face of the Icewing. Her pristine white scales were a bit dull beneath the dirt, but that didn't make her any less amazing. Her stormy-grey eyes and ridged back were unlike anything Rainfall had ever seen. By the look on Frost's face, she hadn't seen a Rainwing in her life either.

"What… just happened?" She asked. The hole they had fallen through didn't seem to be there. Rainfall looked around at the landscape around them. Rolling green hills and fields surrounded them. There were trees that were different from anything Rainfall had ever seen. They were smaller and looked like large bushes. Their leaves were orange and brown and red. There were some trees that were still green. There was a dirt path cutting through the hills, with a stone bridge that went over a small brook.

"Sorry about that." Said a voice from behind Rainfall and Frost. They turned to see a small figure dressed in strange coverings walking towards them. "Cassriel is kind of a jerk." "What… are you?!" Rainfall asked. "That's a scavenger…" Frost said. "But… they don't talk."

"Wrong. I am a demon, but I am disguised as a human right now. I know you called them scavengers back in Pyrrhia, but there's a lot you don't know." Said the human. "My name is Abyss, but please refer to me as Mister Alan for the time being." "Okay… Mister Alan… where are we?" Rainfall asked. "Somewhere in Anibia." Abyss answered. "Now I know that's not a place you're familiar with, and I'm sorry I can't say too much right now. We're kind of exposed. But I can take you to someone who _can_ explain everything."

A noise in the distance made Abyss look up. "Hmm. And we can catch a ride right now, but you're going to have to play along. I'm going to cast an illusion that makes you two look like two humans. Let me do the talking."

Abyss waved his paw-like thing, and then Rainfall was suddenly a human too. So was Frost. She had pale skin and long blonde hair. Rainfall looked at his arms. They were darker than Frost's. Rainfall had no words. Neither did Frost. It was all so weird. Rainfall was half convinced this was all some weird nightmare. He was asleep in the rainforest village, and soon he would wake up and go find Chameleon and Marvelous.

But Rainfall remembered the venom on his chest, the blood in the air, and the warping trees. It was all real. Chameleon and Marvelous might not even be alive anymore. That blood probably belonged to Marvelous. The Nightwings most likely panicked and killed her.

A thing suddenly came around the bend in the dirt path. It had two strange animals carrying something on wheels, where two humans sat. "Hello!" Cried Abyss. The strange transportation stopped by the three humans. "I am Mister Alan, and this is Newton and Mikayla." Abyss said. "What do you want?! Are you some kind of highwaymen?!" Asked a man holding a long piece of rope. "Are you going to Marshborough?" Abyss asked. "What does it matter to you?" Asked the other man, who blinked and then turned and faced the road again. "Yes we are. Hitch a ride." "Thank you." Abyss said, and opened the door to the strange transport. Rainfall and Frost stepped in after him, confused.

"Did… you do that to them?" Frost asked in awe. "Yes." Abyss said. "Now that we're alone, let me tell you some things. This is called a carriage." "We don't care about that." Rainfall hissed. "Where are we? How do we get back home?"

"We are in Anibia right now, outside Marshborough. I'm taking you two to Constellation and Coyote, who will take you to Possibility, where you'll meet Jerboa, head of the Travelers. She can tell you everything." Abyss said. "Where… is Anibia?" Rainfall asked. "The continent of Thessalstia, A continent east of Pyrrhia. Long ago, Pyrrhia and Thessalstia were a much larger continent called Augustia and Consania, but after a battle with two beings of great power, the continent was ripped in two." Abyss replied. "But, it will be hard for you to get home, because you aren't even in your own dimensions anymore."

"What do you mean… dimensions?" Rainfall asked. "Ab…Mister Alan, how do we get home?" "The hard way." Abyss responded, and then he snapped his fingers. Rainfall felt like he was falling for a second, and then it stopped, and the carriage had come to a halt.

Abyss stepped out of the carriage. "Mister Alan, we cannot proceed." Said the man with the long rope. "You know humans aren't allowed within the city walls without a permit. We're lucky to even be in Anibia, most of us have to stay in Manholm." Abyss nodded. "Ah, we have a permit though. Thank you for your help." Rainfall and Frost stepped out of the carriage. There were other forms of transportation stopped nearby. There was a wall nearby, with a gate that had two dragons with a kind of helmet on standing on either side. They had armbands on.

"Well… alright." Said the man, and the carriage began to ride off again. Rainfall looked around at the other carriages. There was something that didn't look like a carriage. It had wheels, but it had a kind of compartment where two humans would sit, and a long, open-top box on the back. It was made out of metal.

Abyss brought the two behind the large… thing. "This is called a truck." He said. Abyss pointed at Rainfall and Frost again, and they were their dragon forms once more. He then began to glow with a dark light. A high-pitched noise began to sound as he turned into a dragon. He was a Seawing, dark green scales and spotted scales. "I accelerated our journey a bit." He said. "It would have taken hours to get here otherwise." "Why aren't scavengers allowed in the city, what's going on?" Frost asked. "Well…" Abyss said quietly. "There was a war a long time ago between humanity and the dragons, and let's just say the dragons won. The Thessalstian dragons decided to be merciful and let the remaining humans live within a country west of here they created called Manholm. They aren't allowed out, except for business reasons, or war. Some humans are able to live in the other countries, but they are considered much less of a living being." "Then why are there so many humans here?" Rainfall asked. "Because Anibia is currently at war with Balksland, their neighbor to the north. They went to Manholm and recruited humans to fight, promising land within Anibia for those who fight." Abyss answered.

The three dragons approached the gates, which were open. One of the guards, a Rainwing, gave them a nod. She had some kind of weapon on her arm, along with the armband. Rainfall stepped through the gate, and was taken aback by the city within.

It was massive. It had large buildings of stone, and wide streets. Dragons of all different tribes, some Rainfall had never seen before, and even some humans, walked on the street and flew in the air. Something that looked like a truck, but smaller, went down one of the side streets, a man inside of it. Most dragons seemed to be flying towards something happening a few streets away. "Abyss…" Frost began, but Abyss cut her off. "Oh, please call me uhmmm… Anemone for the time being." Abyss said. "Okay Anemone…" Frost said, clearly confused, "What are the purple dragons and the light green dragons and the dark brown dragons?"

Rainfall had been staring at the three tribes he hadn't been able to place. He had been able to guess what was a Sandwing, Mudwing, and a Skywing, but there were tribes he had never even heard of or seen. "The purple ones are called Aniwings, named for their power, animyre. It allows them to slow down time around them for a limited time. The green ones are called Grasswings. They are fast on land and can breathe a poisonous gas that works similar to Rainwing venom." "Rainwings have venom?!" Frost asked, shocked, turning to Rainfall, who nodded. "Rockwings can burrow underground easily and have armored scales that make them harder to hurt." Abyss said, pointing to a large Rockwing.

"Why aren't these tribes on Pyrrhia?" Frost asked. "The Pyrrhians killed them all." Abyss said. "Per order of the queens. Although that was probably all wiped from your history. Didn't want anyone to know what happened." "Even the Rainwings?" Rainfall asked. "Yes, even the Rainwings contributed to the Pyrrhic genocide." "…Why?" Frost asked quietly. "That's a long story, and I'm sure somebody else can tell it better than I can." Abyss said. "But if you want a short answer, hate and ignorance. They were minorities."

"What's a minority?" Frost asked. "What's genocide?" Rainfall asked. "Well… a minority is someone who is part of a group that there is less of than other groups." Abyss said. "And genocide is the complete wipeout of a certain group."

Rainfall noticed an Aniwing giving Abyss a dirty look. "Yeah I shouldn't be talking about this right now." Abyss said. The three dragons continued walking through the market. The streets were busy, and Rainfall tried not to lose Abyss in the crowd. He walked fast, quickly dodging around dragons. He seemed to be aiming for a building with a small wooden door and windows with metal bars on the outsides of them. There was a human sitting on the front step of the building. She was wearing a white hood. When they approached her, she didn't even seem to notice the dirty looks a passing Skywing gave her. Her skin was dark, and Rainfall saw she had an earring on. It was gold and had the design of two dragons twined around each other.

"It's quite late to be out on a day like this." Abyss said. "I'm waiting for someone." She said. "As am I." Abyss responded. The woman got up and knocked three times at the small wooden door. " _I think that was a codeword."_ Frost whispered to Rainfall.

A Sandwing and a Nightwing walked out of the building. They were both wearing similar earrings. "…Abyss." Said the Nightwing calmly. "What a surprise." The Sandwing was visibly excited. "Abyss. I've heard so much about you." He was clearly trying to keep himself from shouting. "Right, well, now is not the time Coyote." Abyss said. "You know who I am?" Coyote asked. "Of course. Constellation told me last time I saw her." Coyote turned his head to look at Constellation, who shrugged. "Of course, you talk to a demon often. You're you." Coyote said jokingly.

"This is Frost and Rainfall." Abyss said. "I need you to take them to Jerboa back in Possibility." "All the way back in Possibility?!" Coyote asked loudly. " _Shhh._ " Constellation shushed. " _Don't let them know we're Pyrrhians."_ "Right. Sorry." Coyote said softly. "What's so bad about Pyrrhia?" Rainfall asked, and everyone around them turned and shot the whole group dirty looks. "Disgusting." Someone said. "A child shouldn't say things like that. Whoever the parents of that Rainwing are, they should be ashamed."

"Why do these two dragonets need to see Jerboa?" Constellation asked, keeping her voice monotone. Contrast to the excitable Coyote, Constellation remained calm and collected. Her eyes were hooded, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. " _They have the Kiss of the Void."_ Abyss whispered to her. Constellation's eyes actually widened. "That bastard is using dragonets now?" She asked angrily. Abyss nodded. "Butmono and I saved them." Constellation turned to Rainfall and Frost. "You two are very lucky. Those who end up in Cassriel's experiments don't usually live." "What's the Kiss of the Void?" Frost asked. "Jerboa can explain it all." Coyote said. "But… how are we going to get there?"

"I can make that happen." Abyss said. Constellation turned to the woman sitting outside the building. "We're going to be gone for a few hours." The woman nodded. "I'll tell Swamp." She said. Abyss began to walk away from the building, leading everyone away from the market. "Where are we going?" Rainfall asked. "The water." Abyss answered.

As the group of dragons walked away from the market, Rainfall looked around at the architecture, the dragons and the humans. Coyote pointed things out to Rainfall and Frost. He showed them what a car was, what a newspaper was, and what a streetlight was. A pair of dragons with more mechanisms on their forearms walked by, with black helmets and those silver and red armbands. "Who are they?" Frost asked after they passed. "The APF. Anibian Police Force. They enforce the rules within the country. Their leader, Commander Ghastly, takes orders directly from the King." "They don't have queens?" Frost asked. "I thought that was the ideal form of rule!" "Well, Pyrrhia has some things that are different from the rest of the world. Thessalstia is only one of many other continents. While Augustia and Consania split apart during the Scorching, the other continents such as Praebelia, have hardly changed."

As Rainfall pondered what that could mean, Frost continued asking questions. "Who's the King?" She asked. "King Spirit, an Aniwing. His family has ruled Anibia, for which they named after their tribe, for thousands of years. They are hailed as the royal family because of their gift. The Moon Goddesses chose them and bestowed upon them a power for which they named after them. They called it animus." Frost's jaw dropped open. "The first member of the royal family was a general for the dragons' side in the War of Supremacy. You know it as the Scorching. Nobody is quite sure what happened, but he gained something called the Power of Hamza. The animus power is very powerful, and those who inherit it are bound by oath to only use it for good. But there is a curse that the first king of Anibia, Wraith, put in place. Anibian royals must only marry and have dragonets with Aniwings that the current king or queen approves of. If animus power is inherited by a dragonet of another tribe, or anyone who is not approved to bear royal dragonets by the current king, the curse begins. The animus magic will corrupt the soul of the dragon every time they use it. The soul is much more important than the physical body, as you'll surely find out."

"Why would King Wraith do that?" Frost asked. Rainfall was listening intently but was amazed by something that wasn't a dragon flying through the sky. It had a kind of propeller on front and two wings, but it was metal. "He wanted to ensure that whoever had animus magic was a good dragon. All royals who were hatched with this power were forced to take the Oath of Stone, named after an old friend of the first king who believed in responsibility and fairness. Of course, someone who isn't an Aniwing can't be king or queen, and they can't be king or queen if they're disapproved. It was kind of a failsafe."

Abyss led the dragons around a corner and then, there it was. The ocean. Rainfall had seen the ocean from the rainforest, but it looked different here. Less calm. Abyss took them to a rock sticking out into the water. Nearby, there was a Nightwing watching a small dragonet splash in the water. It was a beautiful day to be out on the beach.

Abyss pointed to the water. The murky sand and dirt beneath the small waves suddenly fell away. There was clear sky on the other side of the large hole that was now forming in the sand. "Alright, just jump through, and then make sure you land on your feet." Abyss said. He gave Constellation and Coyote a nod. "Thank you." He said. "And you two," He said to Rainfall and Frost. "Don't die out there. Be careful." He walked away. Rainfall watched him go as he crossed the street. A group of dragonets walked by, momentarily blocking Rainfall's view. When the dragonets had passed, Abyss had vanished.

Coyote jumped into the hole first, letting out a whoop as he splashed into the water. Constellation followed. Rainfall looked at Frost. She was very pretty. Rainfall had been surrounded by beautiful dragons all his life, but none of them looked like Frost did.

"After you." Rainfall said. Frost looked around, and then jumped into the water. Rainfall looked around at the world around him. He was tired, but he felt like he could be awake forever. There was so much more outside the forest than he had ever anticipated. Rainfall took a deep breath, and then made the plunge. Into the unknown.

. . .

 _Everything had changed. I thought I had found something greater than I could ever imagine. I was right, but not in the sense I thought. Frost and I would soon become close friends, but I never forgot Chameleon and Marvelous._

 _If I had just stayed back at the village and gotten some sleep like they wanted, none of this would have happened._

 _But maybe, despite my imminent death, this was a good thing. If I had just stayed home, I never would have gotten anywhere. But I just kept pushing forward. Grandeur had given me advice that stayed with me, right up until now. If I had stayed home, I never would have met anybody I now consider my greatest friends. I had persistence, and even if I die, maybe I would have more regrets if I had stayed home that night._

 _My life was about to change, and so was the entire world._

. . .


	48. Chapter 42: Traveler

The school held an assembly to honor the dragonets who died. Pike, Coconut, and Changbai. Clay and Sunny were holding counseling for any dragonets who had been traumatized by Adnachiel's attack on the school. There was still a search for the bodies of Webs and Falcon. Neither had been seen since Adnachiel appeared.

Messages had been sent to the queens of Pyrrhia, but Starflight and Fatespeaker had started sending other copies of the same message to dragons such as Thorn, Riptide, Reed, an Icewing named Frostbite, Vulture's father, Sixclaws, and Deathbringer.

These messages contained information about the world. Things that had been told by Swordfish and Vine, things Anthony, Marie, and Azure, who had returned to Old Monarchy, had said, and information that had been revealed in Rainfall's chest. Almost all of it was going to be told to the queens of Pyrrhia, and if they refused to say anything to their tribe, the dragonets of destiny were going to ensure that the information couldn't remain hidden for long.

"Do you really think it was all true?" Rattlesnake asked Swordfish. "Everything that was in there?" "It has to be." Swordfish said, looking out at the moons. "Everything connects. It all makes sense. Why would Rainfall lie?"

"What happens next?" Rattlesnake asked. "Where do we go from here?" Swordfish sighed. He didn't know. Pyrrhia had already been rocked once by Darkist-fueled paranoia, and it was being rocked twice by Old Monarchy's sudden appearance. It was about to happen a third time. Was anyone ready?

Swordfish felt Rattlesnake's tail attempt to twine with his, but he didn't complete it. Everything that was in that scroll… had been the whole truth. Swordfish could only hope that Adnachiel was wrong, but everything she had said had proven to be truthful. Swordfish could only hope that the world wasn't about to end.

. . .

Rainfall gasped for air, poking his head out of the water. He was in a river underneath a large bridge. Judging by the noise of dragons above him, he was somewhere populated. Frost was being helped out of the water nearby by Constellation and Coyote. Rainfall had never learned how to swim and began splashing in the water in a panic. Coyote swam over and helped Rainfall too.

The river was bordered by walls, but there was a small bit of sand and stone between the river and the wall. The four dragons walked along the border until they were underneath the bridge. "Cover their eyes." Constellation said, and Coyote's wings were suddenly blocking Rainfall and Frost's view of the wall beneath the bridge.

Rainfall heard a knocking sound, and then Coyote put down his wings. The wall beneath the bridge was beginning to open. The bricks were sliding aside like magic to reveal a doorway. Constellation entered, and Coyote led Rainfall and Frost inside.

"Where… where are we?" Frost asked. "Back in Pyrrhia. We're in Possibility, a town on the border of the Kingdom of Sand and the Kingdom of Sky. Queen Scarlet is currently claiming ownership since… the Sandwings don't really have a queen right now." Coyote said. "Why don't the Sandwings have a queen?" Rainfall asked. Constellation stopped. "Oh, you're one of _those_ Rainwings." She said with a sigh. "I'll give you the basics right now. A few scavengers, which is what we call humans around here, killed Queen Oasis years ago. She had three possible heirs, Burn, Blaze, and Blister. The tribes of Pyrrhia are now split amongst who should be queen and have been warring since Oasis' death. The only tribes who are neutral are the Rainwings and the Nightwings, except we think the Nightwings are actually helping Blister."

"The Nightwings are helping Blister?!" Frost asked as the two older dragons led them into a large chamber. They were now clearly underground. Ornate candlelit lamps lit the room. There were fancy rugs on the ground and various dragons, and even some humans were milling about. Some looked normal. Others were wearing armor, and some were wearing white robes. The one thing they all had in common was their earrings. Golden twin dragons, twisting around each other. This was obviously some kind of group. There were dragons of all tribes here, and the humans weren't being treated like food.

"Well… who are 'we'?" Rainfall asked. "The Travelers." Said Coyote, pride shining in his eyes. "We come from all over. All those who are aware of the existence of the Demons, and those who wish to do something to stop their harmful activities. We come from all over the world, and all over the multiverse. Our leader, Jerboa, is an ancient Sandwing animus dragon who found a way to stop the Curse of Wraith. We…"

"That's enough Coyote." Constellation said. "Don't overload them with information. Besides, Papyrus and Apollo will teach them everything if they choose to join us." "Choose to join you?!" Frost asked, bewildered. "I don't know about Rainfall, but I have a family to get back home to! My parents… my cousin Blizzard and her parents… I can't leave them all!" "Rainfall, what was the last thing that happened to you before Cassriel took you?" Constellation asked. Rainfall thought back to the Nightwings. Marvelous' venom. "I was hit by my friend's venom. I was going to die."

"And what about you, Frost?" Constellation asked. "Well… Blizzard and I had crossed the Great Ice Cliff… we were going to try and find a scavenger. A troop of Sandwings supporting Burn found us. I tried to blast one with Frostbreath, but I missed, and she stabbed me in the heart with her barb. I thought I was dead."

"You were. You both were. Cassriel takes dragons who are right about to die and offers them an alternate path. He then gets visitors to vote to kill one. The one who lives is put into a world and is given a story of some sort. We still don't know why he does these experiments." Constellation said. "What we do know is that any dragons, or humans for that matter, who are forcefully pulled into the Void like that are given the Kiss of the Void. This gives them the power to open rifts at will, unassisted. Rifts are doorways to other worlds and dimensions. You both have this ability, you just need someone to teach you how to use it."

"So, to answer the question," Coyote said, stopping Constellation. "You died in your original world. You could return, but we would have to find it, and there are many, many worlds. There's also the whole situation where you would have to explain how you're alive and where you came from."

"So, your options are, for the time being, go live out in this world, or join us. We want to help you. If you can master world jumping, you may be able to find a world that's just right for you to live in." Constellation said. "We have a few other dragonets who we wish to teach. You can join them if you would like."

Rainfall thought for a moment. "Are the Rainwings just as useless and lazy here as they were back home?" He asked. "They're pretty lazy." Said a passing Rainwing Traveler. "And stupid." Rainfall looked around at the dragons and humans around him. A world of freedom, knowledge, and things he didn't know ever existed. "I'm joining." He said decisively. "The Rainwings are not the tribe for me."

"Great!" Coyote said. "The Travelers is made from misfits and outsiders. Jerboa says its because we can see things normal dragons can't." Rainfall looked at Frost. Her grey eyes were staring at the ceiling. "On the one talon, my cousin thinks I'm dead." She said. "On the other, I despise Icewing society. The rankings, the racism, the rules… the way the rest of my family wants me to be more like them."

"I think I'll join you. Then I can go see my cousin again. I might even be able to take her with me." Frost said. Once again, Rainfall noted how pretty the light looked in her eyes. "I can take you to the other dragonets who were affected by the demons." Coyote said. "Papyrus and Apollo will start the first class tomorrow. There's a lot of stuff to learn about the way these worlds work."

Coyote led the two dragonets down a long hallway. "These tunnels were an old system a group of rebelling Skywings built over a hundred years ago. We found them and repurposed them into our main Pyrrhian hideout." Coyote said, opening a door. "Swiftwind! Mahogany! There's two others!"

Inside the door was a small set of stairs that led to a room above ground. Rainfall walked up the stairs to see a small, nervous looking Mudwing dragonet and a bright orange Skywing dragonet sitting on small mats. Tall windows in the pale stone room shone with light from the outside and the sounds of the city on the other side of the walls sounded like a distant babble. Like relaxing outside the rainforest village while everyone else talks about mangoes or orchids or something.

"Hello!" Said the Skywing. The Mudwing eyed both Rainfall and Frost and gave them a small nod. "I'm Swiftwind! This is Mahogany!" She had an accent. Once again, Mahogany nodded. "Well… I'm Frost." Said Frost. "And I'm Rainfall." Rainfall added. A man with something like a cloth wrapped around his head came into the room. "Who want tea?" He asked in broken Dragon.

"Are you learning Arnish?" Swiftwind asked. The man nodded. "Wants not want." Swiftwind said. "Thank you." The man said, "Who wants tea?" Rainfall had had tea once, so he put one claw in the air. Frost looked confused. "What is tea?" She asked. "A drink." Rainfall said. "It's good."

The man nodded and left when everyone but Mahogany said they wanted some. "What is Arnish?" Frost asked. "The language is Dragon." Swiftwind's face twitched slightly. "Sorry. I forgot I was in the presence of Pyrrhians. Arnish is the real name of the language, left over from the War of Supremacy. Your Pyrrhian ancestors wiped all of that away."

"Okay, what is it that Pyrrhia did?" Frost asked. "We were just in Anibia, and everybody there didn't like Pyrrhians either." "Nobody except Pyrrhians like Pyrrhians." Swiftwind said. "I'm from Balksland, and we don't like Pyrrhians either." She paused. "Well… I've learned they're not actually all that evil, but your ancestors were pretty terrible."

"What did they do? Abyss told us they killed all the Aniwings, Grasswings, and Rockwings, but why? What happened?" Rainfall asked.

"Well, the War of Supremacy had three major sides. Camaelists, the dragon supremist side. Black Star, the human supremist side. And Old Monarchy, the side that believed that humans and dragons could live together. The war raged for almost three years before Old Monarchy was destroyed, and not long after, Black Star's leader, Axton Lloyd, disappeared, leaving his army to collapse in on itself. The Camaelists had almost won, but the remaining forces of both Old Monarchy and Black Star had joined and were putting up a fight that seemed like it would drag on forever. Camael, tired of it all, suggested that the remaining humans could live out on the small island continent that had broken off of Augustia and Consania. They would not be allowed to leave." Swiftwind paused, catching her breath.

"Any humans that wished to remain on the continent they were already living on, had to live in closely monitored puppet states within each continent, ruled by dragons. They had to accept that they could be killed off or destroyed at any given moment." Rainfall nodded, sipping his tea. It had a taste he had never tasted before. Swiftwind began again. "209 years after the war ended, the dragons of the northern part of Anibia, called Pyrrhus, attempted to secede from Anibia."

"They took ideas of Camaelism, dragon supremacy, and made them more intense. After declaring independence, they attempted to invade Anibia and take it over. They would kill any and all humans. Their ideas focused on separating tribes from each other, and Pyrrhus was considered the most racist place in the whole world." Swiftwind explained. "In fact, all the Pyrrhic tribes hated each other. Years of seclusion from each other had made them so racist. The only thing that made them temporarily band together was the idea of taking Anibia."

"It looked like they were going to win, but they made a fatal mistake and opened a front with Balksland too. Their greed was too great. The leaders were appointed kings of tribes, and the kings who began this front were the kings of the Grasswing, Aniwing, and Rockwing tribes. When it was realized that Pyrrhus did not have the resources to fight a two-front war, the other tribe kings turned against those who began that front. What resulted was a complete genocide of those tribes. They were Pyrrhic warriors who had failed and had cost them the war. Also, because of this, the wives of the kings suggested that maybe things would turn out better if they took over the role as supreme leaders for a bit."

"When it became obvious that the whole continent had turned against them for their war crimes and atrocities, the Pyrrhians decided to completely leave. They knew they would be destroyed by every country in the world for ending the long peace that had come out of the War of Supremacy. The queens ordered an evacuation of Pyrrhus. All the loyal Pyrrhians left Thessalstia and flew east. All that was known was that they took over the continent that was given to the humans and implemented their radical Camaelist ideas there. For thousands of years, dragons and humans have been told the history and stories of the Pyrrhian rebellion. The evil, racist, fascist dragons who took an entire continent in the Central East, and then shrunk into isolation. Nobody dared go there, and nobody ever left there. Everyone in the world fears them, hates them. But nobody dares break our relative peace. Right before they left, the Pyrrhians accepted one certain Aniwing back into their tribe. The king of Anibia's daughter, who had animus power, had an affair with the son of the Pyrrhian Icewing queen. She left with them. Nobody had any idea what magic weapons the Pyrrhians had developed, and what they would do to us. Pyrrhian animuses didn't have to take the Oath of Stone. Who knew what terrible things they could do?"

Rainfall sat back and thought about this. "But… we haven't ever heard about any of this." Frost said. "We were taught that Pyrrhia was the only continent, and anything else was a legend." "Lies created by the original Pyrrhic settlers." Swiftwind said. "Unless you come from some world where things are different, that is how it is. Mahogany was telling me the same things. I think that it was all covered up and a different story has been told for thousands of years."

The door suddenly opened again and a Mudwing and a Skywing entered. "Greetings dragonets." Boomed the Mudwing. "I am Papyrus, and this is Apollo!" The Skywing raised his head to look at the dragonets. "We will be your instructors on the secrets of the world, and how to use them to your advantage."

"You there." Papyrus said, pointing to Swiftwind. "How did you find us?" "Well, I was flying around my hometown, and I saw this weird dragon fly into a wall and disappear. I tried to do the same and fell into some… other world. A Traveler found me lost there, and she brought me here."

Papyrus nodded and turned to Mahogany. "My sibs and I were going to another village. Our village had been destroyed in a recent Icewing raid. We flew into a thick mist, and then a large Nightwing came out of nowhere and killed my entire family. I was the last one alive, and I managed to stab him in the weak spot. He died, and then Jerboa came and took me here not five minutes later."

Silence fell across the dragons in the room. Apollo turned and ran out the door. "Papyrus… continue. I'm going to ask Jerboa what happened." Apollo walked out of the room. "Poor Apollo…" Papyrus muttered. "If he seems weird to you it's because he just found out he has a dragonet. He made a mistake with a Skywing entertainer…" Papyrus trailed off.

After Rainfall and Frost told their story, Papyrus pulled out a thin, flat slab of dark rock. He had a piece of chalk with him and began to draw on the slab. He drew a flat line at the bottom, and then circles above the line. "This is a diagram of the multiverse." He said, quieter now. "In each of these orbs, there is a world. All the worlds are connected through their similarities. They can all be linked back to something we called 'The Console' in the past, but what we now call 'The Canon World.'" Papyrus wrote "The Canon World" underneath the flat bottom line.

"Each world can be affected by beings of great power, who exist in a world far beyond this. We call them 'visitors.' The Canon World can only be changed by one singular visitor. We call this visitor 'The Author.' She changes the Canon World, and all others are seemingly based off it." Papyrus said. "The space between the worlds is called The Void. Time doesn't exist in the Void. Nature has no place in the Void. Only one kind of being is supposed to be able to go there."

"They are the Demons. A group of god-like creatures whose goal is to keep the worlds working as they should. They all have roles and abilities, which they perform at the order of the Demon King. Now, normally this wouldn't cause any problems, but for a long time now, the Demons have been doing things that harm the worlds, not help them. The King appears to have a plan of some sort. While we are not sure what the complete plan is, Jerboa herself suspects that the King is planning to kill the visitors."

Papyrus paused. "Why would he do that?" Mahogany asked. "Once again, we are unsure, but Abyss, a demon who has secretly partnered with us, has said it is because the demons are slaves to them. The demons have been serving the visitors since the creation of the multiverse, and many of them feel it is unfair that they were simply created to serve. They want freedom. We are unsure of how they will do this, but it is nevertheless dangerous. The top thinkers of the Travelers believe that if this is done, the entire multiverse will collapse."

"Well… what happens if they do that?" Rainfall asked. "Everything ends." Papyrus responded. "Without anything to keep it going, the entire multiverse will simply… cease to exist."

The silence that followed that statement seemed to be loud. The distant noises of the city outside sounded like the stars were laughing at the dragons in the room. "How do we defeat a demon?" Swiftwind asked. "Well… that's the thing. They're quite hard to kill." Apollo said, entering the room again. "There is only one surefire way to defeat a demon."

Papyrus used a small cloth to clear the chalk, and he began to draw again. "The term for it is 'inheritance.'" Apollo continued. "There is something the residents of the Console have that nobody else does. We call it a 'soul.' The Author breathed life into those dragons and humans. Everything else is just a branch-off. Because of this, the those from the Canon World are the only ones that can hurt a demon."

"See, attacks from dragons like us, the demon can instantly heal." Papyrus said, his deep voice almost startling Rainfall. "But attacks from a dragon, or even a human, with a soul, don't heal. If someone with a soul manages to _kill_ a demon, they become the new demon."

"… What?" Frost asked. "Let's say I have a soul." Apollo said. "And I kill Cassriel, Hell's Electoral Poet. Cassriel dies, and I become the new Cassriel." "However, you're not totally done yet." Papyrus said. "The will of the original demon still exists, and he or she will attempt to control you. When you inherit a demon, you also inherit the will of the original demon, no matter how many times it has been inherited." "If your own will is strong enough, you will beat back the demon's will, and that's how you kill a demon. There is no other way." Apollo said.

"So… only those from the Canon World can kill a demon?" Rainfall asked, a mixture of terrified and awed. "Not entirely." Apollo said. Papyrus began to draw on the slate again. He drew a simple dragon with what looked like a white blob inside its chest. He drew another dragon with a spear, stabbing the dragon in the chest. He drew an arrow coming off the white blob and pointing at the empty chest of the dragon with the spear.

"If a dragon, or a human, without a soul, kills a dragon or human with a soul, the soul becomes theirs." Apollo said. "That is the other side of inheritance. Many dragons believe that physical bodies are the most important, but the soul is the most important part of a body." "So… I'm soulless?" Frost asked. "Don't worry. Just because you don't have a soul, you're not evil or something." Papyrus laughed. "It just means you don't have very much power in this multiverse."

"Um…" Mahogany said, speaking up. "Was everything Swiftwind said about Pyrrhus and all that true?" Swiftwind turned and gave him a look. "Do you think I _lied_ to you?" She asked. "Oh, the Pyrrhic Rebellion?" Apollo asked. "Yes. It happened. All of it."

"So then why is Pyrrhia so different from the rest of the world?" Mahogany asked. "Because the first rulers of Pyrrhia declared humans nothing more than 'scavengers,' and proceeded to kill them all." Apollo said grimly. "We wiped away their cities and technology, and the dragons refused to use any modern human technology. It was supposed to be a complete destruction of the world from before. It was all covered up too. Arnish was forcefully made the language of Pyrrhia so that there would be no different languages, and therefore no questions about the world beyond Pyrrhia."

"And the story Coyote told us about animus magic, is that true?" Frost asked. "Yes." Apollo answered. "Because descendants of the Icewing prince and the Anibian princess are not bound by the Oath of Stone, their animus magic is left unchecked and wild. That is why animus magic depletes the user's soul every time it is used. That is why every animus has Icewing ancestry."

"I've never even heard of animus magic before this." Rainfall said. "What does it do?" "An animus dragon can enchant anything to do anything." Frost said. "If I were an animus, I could enchant this tea to turn into water with just my will, but legend said that animus magic corrupts the soul of the dragon who uses it every time they use it."

Papyrus and Apollo continued to teach the dragonets about various history and things about the world until it was dark out. Rainfall had never expected anything of this volume to exist beyond the rainforest. He had wanted the large, open world of Pyrrhia. He got even more. He got an entire world, and the multiverse that surrounded it.

. . .

 _The Travelers were everything I had ever wanted and more. But with this kind of knowledge came dangers far beyond anything my worst nightmares could come up with. I didn't understand how terrifying the demons would be._

 _I didn't know that I was getting involved in something dangerous, just like Marvelous had warned me of. But since we're all Pyrrhians, I guess we're all involved in something dangerous. Someday, the nations of the world will overcome their fears. Be it mentally, or with technology that will overcome the powers of even animus dragons. The world is progressing. We aren't._

. . .

"I hated the rainforest." Rainfall said. Frost nodded. "I hated the Ice Kingdom. Their rules, rankings, and control make me sick. I just find a lot of Icewing pretentiousness to be insufferable. I've just always had to act like I'm fine with it." Frost gave a nervous chuckle. "Kind of the opposite of you, but the same too."

The two were sitting on the bridge above the secret doorway to the Traveler's underground. Papyrus and Apollo had started drinking some Sandwing liquor, Swiftwind had gone to find some other dragons from Balksland, and Mahogany had been called for a private meeting with Jerboa. "What do you think is up with Mahogany?" Rainfall asked. "Why do the Travelers have such an interest in him? He didn't even encounter a demon or enter another world. Jerboa just… took him."

"Maybe that Nightwing that killed his family was a demon." Frost guessed. They stopped talking as an injured Seawing hobbled past. "No… because Mahogany killed him." The two fell silent.

"You know… I'm glad that out of all the dragons Cassriel could have picked for me to get stuck with, it was you." Frost said. She looked away, a slight blue tint under her cheeks. "You're nice. You're like Blizzard."

Rainfall didn't know how to take this. "Thanks…?" He said, shrugging, trying to beat back the pink rose feeling in his scales. Rainfall hated it when emotions showed themselves all over his body. He was a dragon who liked his privacy, which included his thoughts, thank you very much.

"I wonder what happened to her." Frost said quietly. "I hope she's okay… but she's probably dead to be realistic. Those Sandwings were… I…" Frost trailed off. She began to cry softly. Rainfall awkwardly put his wing around her. Her scales were cold. He wasn't good with this kind of stuff. As Frost cried harder and turned and put her face into his wing, Rainfall thought about Chameleon and Marvelous. They were probably dead too. And maybe the Nightwings really had invaded the forest. Maybe everyone was dead.

When talking to Frost, his experiences living in the rainforest didn't seem so bad. She kind of took the bad feelings out of it, and made it seem more like something he could look back at and laugh. But the thoughts of what had happened and what lay ahead were still loud and clear in Rainfall's head. He knew he had to move forward. He couldn't go back to the world he died in.

"My friends are probably dead too." Rainfall said. "And so are we. We can't go back to them now, even if they're alive." Frost sniffed and withdrew her snout from Rainfall's wing. "Well then we can't die. I knew the real Blizzard. The one that wasn't an arrogant, racist Icewing. If I stay alive, then the memory of her will live on too." She looked at Rainfall. "I can't give up. I have no choice." Rainfall thought about Chameleon and Marvelous. If they were dead… he would be the only one to remember them. The Rainwings would easily forget about them.

"Well that's why we're here." Rainfall said. "To live."

. . .

The next morning, Rainfall and the other Traveler recruits walked into the room to find a tall, pale Sandwing waiting for them. She had triangle designs on her wings. "Hello." She said. "I am Jerboa the Second, head of the Travelers in this world." She had a stack of scrolls with her. "It's time you all learned about the creation of the world."

Rainfall cautiously took a seat, not taking his eyes off the dragon in front of him. "You're Jerboa…" Swiftwind said. "The second. Jerboa was my mother." Jerboa said. Her eyes seemed to have a mischievous wisdom to them. "How did you get around the Curse of Wraith?" Swiftwind asked.

"Many animus dragons in Pyrrhia's history have attempted to use their magic to save their souls. The thing is, none of them knew what exactly it was they were trying to do. They all failed. Once you know what it is you need to do, its quite simple. One spell is all it takes to reverse King Wraith's curse. You just need to be specific." Jerboa said with a smile.

"Let us begin." Jerboa said. "An in-depth history lesson is needed to understand things the correct way." She took a scroll from the pile, and one came loose. It rolled toward Rainfall. As Jerboa found the beginning of the scroll, Rainfall quietly picked up the scroll that had rolled toward him. Jerboa didn't seem to notice.

"At the very beginning." Jerboa began. "A being from another planet, which we only know as 'Eden,' left its home to experiment with life. Its name was God. God created a planet called Earth and began life there. Plants, animals, and microscopic organisms. But this was only a test, for earth was plagued with lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Soon, God left Earth. He created three Moon Goddesses to watch over Earth. Luna, Sola, and Eclis."

Rainfall opened the scroll to be greeted with a large list of symbols, each with titles beneath them. _DEMONS_ , read the name of the list. At the top was _Abyss-Lord of Chaos,_ followed by _Aciel-The God Burner._

"Sola created 12 beings called the Angels to help rule over life on Earth. These creatures were a mixture of what we today know as dragons, and humans." Jerboa showed an illustration of a strange beast, with the body of a human, but horns, wings, talons, and tails. "But the other two Moon Goddesses feared that Luna had made the Angels too powerful, and they would soon overthrow them. Luna and Eclis killed all the Angels, save for the two head Angels, Zeus and Hera. Luna transformed them into the two first humans, Adam and Eve. The first species of Postangels."

"This is a story from the Holy Words!" Swiftwind said. "Do… you not have this in Pyrrhia?" Mahogany shook his head. Rainfall kept running his claw over the list of demons, counting about… 89. There was one that was scribbled over in dark ink. A name that began with L. The list was alphabetical. Rainfall was lucky he learned how to read. The title was still legible. _The Morning Star._

"There are two types of Postangels." Jerboa continued. "Humans and dragons. Both have a half of an Angel's Soul. Therefore, only dragons and humans can inherit a canon soul. Humans have a 'yin' soul, and dragons have a 'yang' soul." Rainfall noticed Frost looking at him, and his scroll, which gained the attention of Mahogany, and then Jerboa.

"Ah. It seems I lost one of my scrolls." Jerboa said slyly. Rainfall felt embarrassed pink wash over his talons. "Is that the one about the demons?" She asked. "Yes." Rainfall stammered. "Uh… may I ask why there is one of the names covered up?" Jerboa's face fell grim. "That is the King's name." She said. "It's considered taboo to say it. One of my previous pupils did that out of fear."

"What is the King's name?" Mahogany asked. "Oh wait… you can't…" "No. I can say it. It's just superstition." She said.

"His name is Lucifer."

. . .

 **Two year anniversary. I can't believe I've made it this far. I love that people enjoy this story so much. This is my greatest work of writing ever. I hope to go to college for writing in a few years, and then a career. Two years ago I thought this would be nothing longer than 20 chapters. Now look where we are.**

 **I read each and every review posted to this. For some of you, I have no way to respond because the commenter is a guest. But I truly appreciate all the positive feedback, and I wish there was some way to express my thanks to all those who I can't.**

 **But seriously. Thank you to all of you who have read all of this. The entire journey. Two years of work is about to pay off. Years of buildup have created this for me, and I enjoy every moment of it. I don't even like Wings of Fire that much anymore, yet I still write this. Almost every day.**

 **One day, I hope to turn these ideas into something that will hopefully be published. This story is my outlet to test my ability.**

 **Once again, thank you for reading Alternate/The Console. And we're only about halfway through.**


	49. Chapter 43: Friends

"I hate my magic." Darkseer said. Rattlesnake sat on Vulture's bed, staring at the ceiling of the cave. "I can't believe I used it…" Darkseer moaned. "If you hadn't used it, Adnachiel would have killed Swordfish and Vine. Tsunami too. You used it to save dragons, not harm them." "It doesn't matter." Darkseer said. "I can't replicate whatever Jerboa did. I'm too afraid to use it again. I can't stop the Curse of Wraith."

Rattlesnake sighed. "Do you _feel_ violent?" She asked. "…No." Darkseer admitted. "Problem solved then." Rattlesnake stated, and rose to her feet, shaking out her wings. "But that doesn't mean I won't in the future. I see visions of me hurting dragons. I kill them." Darkseer choked. He was crying. Rattlesnake slowly walked over to him and put a comforting talon on his back. "I don't want to use my power again. I'd rather die."

. . .

Swordfish sat in the art cave, staring at a blank canvas. He had never learned how to draw well, but he felt like putting something down. He dipped his talon into black paint and made a dark claw mark across the canvas. "You don't want to? Do you?" Typhoon asked. She was standing nearby, looking out a window at the rain.

"No. I don't." Swordfish replied, looking at the black scar he had slashed across the empty canvas. The black paint dripped down the white emptiness. He had used too much paint. "I don't want to either." Typhoon said. "Screw Cerulean and Urchin's deal. We don't need them anymore." Swordfish didn't say anything. He just watched the dark paint drip down to the bottom of the canvas. Its purity had been ruined. "Yeah. I don't need my father anymore." He said. At the wooden base of the canvas was the earring his father had given him. A Traveler's earring.

. . .

"I don't know. How do you feel about it?" Vine asked Kinkajou. "Well, we're taught to never use our venom on living creatures." Kinkajou said. "But… maybe Rainfall had a point." Vine sighed and looked at her talons. "I almost killed a Camaelist general named Stone. He had me captured and was going to make me serve him for life. Would I have been correct in doing that?" Vine asked.

Kinkajou sighed. "I don't know." She said honestly. "Rainfall was kind of right about the Rainwings. They live in peaceful ignorance. They didn't even know Nightwings were capturing members of their own tribe."

There was silence between the two until Vine spoke. "Even though I struggle to remember things, I always thought that everywhere should be like the rainforest. I could see the best in every dragon. Nobody was all bad, and that everything would turn out okay in the end."

"Well… maybe I was wrong. Maybe this world is crueler than I ever thought. Maybe I would have been justified in killing Stone. I mean… Frost wasn't a bad dragon, was she? Was it really her fault?"

. . .

"But how did it happen?" Starflight asked. "How could almost all the citizens of Jeoul be transformed into dragons at once? It can't be the Dagger of Luna." "Nobody knows." Vulture said. "One form of Postangel was turned into another form of Postangel. Maybe Luna herself did it."

"I can't believe the moons are… conscious." Sunny said. "I can!" Fatespeaker chimed. "Sometimes I almost feel like they're talking to me." Starflight almost said something but stopped himself at the last moment.

"Some dragons aren't going to like this." Sunny said. "This goes against everything we've ever known." "Out of everything those messages to the queens said, I think this isn't very controversial compared to other things it says." Vulture argued.

"Yeah…" Starflight muttered. "When do you think Thessalstia will attack us? Or will Pyrrhia attack them first?" "We will either meet our destruction at the hands of Thessalstia and the rest of the world, or Lucifer himself will come to end us all." Vulture said. "We need to get off this continent."

. . .

"It's okay." Tsunami whispered. Clay was crying in her cave. His tendons had been healed by the Earring of Sola. " _I can't… I don't deserve forgiveness."_ He whimpered. " _I handed one of our students over to die."_ He sobbed. "You had no choice." Tsunami said reassuringly. "None of us did. Adnachiel knew exactly how to play her cards. If you hadn't acted, Marsh would be dead. Your own brother."

" _Do you think… Swordfish… and his friends… hate me?"_

. . .

Delta lit a torch and lightly touched down on the ground of the ravine Cedar had died in. Frigid landed right behind her. "Alright." He said. "Let's find a body." Delta felt woozy as the torchlight illuminated the rock walls around her. She was either going to find the dead body of her brother, who she had killed, or nothing at all, which would mean something… a lot worse.

. . .

"If I ever see that Icewing again I'm going to burn her face off." Peril grumbled. "You can't." Turtle said from the corner. "You don't have a soul. You're powerless against Adnachiel." Turtle turned his healing rock over and over in his claws. _I wasted my soul on this._ He thought. _And I can never get it back. My whole existence is a mistake, created by an affair in an evil rebellion._

"Well then I'll do what I can to make her hurt." Peril said darkly. "Nobody controls me like that. Not again. I was controlled like that by Scarlet my whole life. I am free now, and nobody, not even a demon, can take that away from me."

. . .

"It seems these messages were sent out to every queen in Pyrrhia." Savanna said, reading the Grandmaster's words. In his talon was the message meant for Queen Glory. "Obsidian intercepted it and brought it here. With this, Jade Mountain Academy has allied itself with the queens, which we now know are subjects of evil! The Pyrrhic Rebels and their hateful deeds still live on within the queens of Pyrrhia!" The Darkists muttered in anger.

This was Savanna's first time back as Speaker. He had been temporarily stripped of his title for being responsible for the chaos a few months ago when he tried to get Swordfish to join. He had been locked in a cell in the old Nightwing dungeon and had his claws on his left arm ripped out by Aqua with pliers. Feeling the Grandmaster's eyes from underneath the hood and metallic mask watching him from the back gave him the familiar chills and feeling of dread. But he had been justified in his punishment. Savanna had put the whole order in danger.

"We now have a way to achieve our goal through new means." Savanna said. "All that is needed is for one of us to gain the Kiss of the Void. Once that happens, we can get Darkstalker from any other world, any other dimension of our choice. And once we do that, we can overthrow the aristocracies, take command of this continent, and begin interaction with the outside world, be that peace or war!"

. . .

Urchin sat by himself in a bar above water. "I'm sorry, I can't offer you another drink." Said the bartender, a bright green Seawing. "Jet off you rock-scrubber." Urchin groaned. "You're drunk. Go home." Said a nearby customer.

Urchin put his head down on the table. It was six years ago today that it happened. The day she disappeared forever. He felt tears slide down his face. Nobody could see, of course. Nobody could see Urchin cry.

. . .

"Ready?" Coyote asked. "Yeah. Let's do this." Rainfall said. He put one talon forward and spread out his wings, calling upon the old chill that hadn't seemed to leave his bones since Cassriel took him. He imagined the chill entering his arm and leaving through the claws. In front of him, the thin air began to break open as the rift opened.

Frost, Mahogany, and Swiftwind watched from behind him. Papyrus and Constellation sat nearby, watching the recruits. "Alright, let's enter." Coyote said. "Looks like we're in the right place." Coyote entered the rift. Rainfall followed him, and the other young recruits behind him.

The city beneath them was large and sprawling. It looked foreign and futuristic. "Where are we?" Frost asked. "World 13052204. An alternate version of Earth. We're in a city called Sydney, Australia. There have been reports of an anomaly around here on Turner Street from the Traveler outpost in Boston, and Jerboa wants someone to investigate." "This will be our final test?" Swiftwind asked. Coyote nodded. Mahogany began to fly down towards the city. Dragons were flying above the city as cars drove around the streets below.

It had been almost two years since Rainfall and Frost had been saved from Cassriel. Their training was to prepare them for the world they were going to enter. Today was their final test. That would mean that tomorrow morning, they would become full Travelers. They would get their earring.

The four dragonets easily blended in with the crowd of dragons flying around. "Excuse me, do you know where Turner Street is?" Frost asked a passing Mudwing. "Yeah. Make a right at the front of the aquarium and keep heading down that street. It'll be on your right." Thanks." Frost said, and then turned to her friends. "What's an aquarium again?" She asked, an embarrassed look on her face. "The fish place." Mahogany reminded her. "Right." She said. Rainfall gave Frost a smile, and she smiled back.

Rainfall and Frost had been what dragons beyond Pyrrhia would call "dating." They had both been captured by Cassriel, they had both gone through the same experience, and both were misfits back at their homes. There was also a "connect" Rainfall felt when being with her. It didn't feel emotional or physical or anything like that. It felt more… cosmic.

When they reached the aquarium, the dragonets made the necessary turns until they were at Turner Street. The dragons and humans in this world seemed to get along, and they had what the Travelers called "Future-tech." Many worlds seemed to have the same technology, far more advanced than what the regular worlds had. Their cars, buildings, society, weapons, and lifestyles were incredibly foreign, so foreign that many Travelers had dedicated their lives to studying it all.

While traveling through the city, the four dragonets kept an eye out for anyone following them. One thing that they learned repeatedly was that demons could take various forms to blend in. This transformation from one form to another make a high-pitched noise, which was the only tell or warning. Any random dragon on the street could be a demon, hiding and watching.

All the buildings on the street were illuminated and busy, except for one storefront, which was dark and empty. Yellow tape that read "DO NOT CROSS" lined the door. The dragonets carefully flew over it, avoiding it with their talons, as not to rip it. Frost tried the door, and it opened. The dragonets walked in, and Rainfall felt a feeling of weirdness wash over him. "Did anyone else feel that?" Swiftwind asked, shuddering.

Inside was a clean jewelry store, but the glass containers were smashed open, and whatever that had been displayed was now gone. Behind the counter was a white wall, spattered with blood. A hole had been shot through the wall. "Did someone rob this place with a gun?" Mahogany asked. They had been taught about guns, and even trained with them occasionally. "It looks like it, and that's what's weird." Swiftwind said. "Why is it weird?" Frost asked. "Well, back home, when something like this happened, police would be everywhere. But…" "This place is totally empty." Rainfall finished. Swiftwind nodded. Frost went over to behind the counter and jumped back. "Hey." She said, her voice shaky. "Come check this out."

Behind the counter was a woman with a bullet hole through her body. Only she was covered in a black and green webbing. It was wet and sticky and seemed to be… healing her. Her blood seeped out of the bullet hole, yet she didn't look too hurt.

Mahogany went down and prodded the webbing with his talon. It made a disgusting, wet sound. "Ew." He said, prodding it again. Rainfall looked at the woman's blood spattered on the white wall behind her, and then at her face, which was also bloodied.

Beneath the eyelids, her eyes were beginning to move.

Rainfall pointed at the woman and let out a cry of terror. Mahogany looked at the eyes and darted back up, backing away from the woman. "What… Three…" He sputtered.

The woman's arm twitched, the webbing making the wet noises again, like snakes slithering. "Her body was cold…" Mahogany said softly, terrified. Rainfall panicked and opened his jaw. The venom came out in spurts, covering the webbing, which began to dissolve. It was alive. The woman let out a soft, ghastly cry as the venom began to eat away at her chest. The four dragonets backed up. "What… is this?" Frost asked shakily. The dragonets stared at the horrific scene in front of them as the cry fell silent. When the woman was surely dead, Swiftwind brought out a small glass container and scraped some of the webbing into it. "I'm sure this is what they wanted us to find." She said, disgusted.

. . .

 _The horrors of whatever that was, soon were blocked out by excitement. We had passed the final test and had found something unnatural on our own. Soon, we would be Travelers._

 _But it was something that would come to be short lived._

. . .

"Was it wrapping her entire body, or just a certain part?" Jerboa asked. "Entire body." Mahogany said. The four dragonets were standing at attention inside one of the rooms within the Traveler's underground. It was lit with a chandelier, and held a large oak table surrounded by shelves of scrolls and books. Jerboa and some of the other high-ranking Travelers were examining the strange webbing on the table.

"It's definitely… living. It's like tissue." Said a Skywing. "I say it's from Stygal or Vetis." _Stygal, Bringer of Death. Vetis, The Life Promiser._ Rainfall recalled. They had to study the demons long ago. All ninety of them and what they could do. In case they ever come face to face with one. He and Frost had spent countless hours going over scrolls in the library.

"And you two were the world-jumpers who opened the rift there?" Jerboa asked Rainfall and Frost. Frost nodded. She had taken the dragonets and Coyote back to their old world as a finisher to their test. As far as they knew, they had passed. They had found the anomaly and brought it back here.

"You four are dismissed." Said an Aniwing named Shade. "We will study this substance further." "Did we pass?" Asked Mahogany. "I will speak with Papyrus and Apollo." Said Jerboa. "And then… perhaps." Frost turned to Rainfall with a grin that made Rainfall's heart pound.

A man suddenly opened the door to the room. "Pardon me." He said. "But Abyss and two dragons have come. I think that… well… Abyss will explain." Rainfall looked around the room, shocked. He hadn't seen Abyss since he brought him here. Rainfall had learned that along with a few others, including Butmono, the other demon who had saved Rainfall and Frost, Abyss was a demon who had secretly aligned himself against Lucifer and his council.

The Devil's Council was a group of eight demons who advised the king and oversaw certain things. Lahad, Camael, Befafes, Zablah, Naberius, Och, Ariel, and Jochmus.

Rainfalll looked around the room, waiting for a rift or something to open up, or for the door to open once more, and for Abyss to walk in, but when Rainfall turned his attention back to the table, there he was. He had simply appeared. There was an Icewing and a Sandwing with him.

"Get them out of here." Abyss said, pointing to the dragonets. "What… what happened?" Asked Shade. "Cassriel is trying something new. Something terrible. These two, Horizon and Fjord, are from the Console." " _Canonical."_ Someone said, drawing in a breath. "Hey! What's going on?" Demanded Fjord. "Who are you?"

The dragonets were swiftly escorted out of the room. Rainfall had never seen Jerboa look so… intense before. "Cassriel took dragons from the Canon World?" Swiftwind asked. "That means that those two… have souls."

. . .

Rainfall and Frost met back on the bridge. They had been meeting there ever since they first arrived at Possibility, and it had become their place to go to talk about things. "Tomorrow morning. We end this journey and begin a new one." Frost said. "Yeah." Rainfall agreed, looking up at the sky. A few days prior, Constellation had taken Rainfall into the world he had come from. They had finally tracked it down. Rainfall wasn't quite sure how Constellation had found it, and she wouldn't tell him.

 **Four days earlier…**

"Where would they be?" Rainfall asked. "If they're alive, not in the Rainforest." Constellation said. "They'd be in the fortress. Locked up in Mastermind's caves." She turned and looked at Rainfall. She was normally cool-headed and emotionless, but there was a hint of pity on her face. "Are you sure you want to do this to yourself? Remind yourself of what you left behind? You can't have both worlds. It would be cruel of you to drag your old friends into the world you live in now." Rainfall didn't say anything for a while as the two flew across the desert. "I just want to know if they're alright." He said softly.

As the pair reached the forest, sheets of rain lashed at the canopy above them. Constellation led Rainfall to a cave. "Turn invisible." She said. "And make sure you don't bump into any guards. Stick with me." Constellation lit a torch under the roof of the cavern, not letting it get wet. Rainfall looked at the damp cave around him as the pair walked through a tunnel. A familiar feeling washed over Rainfall. "Hey… this is like… I've been in one of these before." "Stonemover made two." Constellation said. "Can't say I agree with most Nightwing kingdoms I've come across. The one that leads to the desert is for Blister's forces to march into the forest."

When daylight began to shine at the end of the tunnel, Rainfall turned invisible and shrank close behind Constellation. She passed two Nightwing guards at the end of the tunnel, who gave her a nod. Rainfall looked up at the scary Nightwing guard, who didn't notice him at all. But beyond the guard was the volcano. Rainfall had heard of them from other Travelers, but he never realized just how awful they looked. Thick smog blocked out any sun that would've been seen through the rain clouds. The smoke was heavy at the top of the mountain, which had long, lazy tendrils of lava seeping out of it and making their way down to the water at the base of the island. Nightwings were everywhere, soldiers posted at key positions, making sure nothing got in. Or out.

" _Make no noise. Do not alert anybody to your position. Let me do any talking."_ Constellation whispered. _"Stay close behind me."_ Rainfall nodded out of habit, knowing she couldn't see him. They entered the tunnels that made up the fortress. Rainfall examined the dark volcanic rock that made up the tunnels, but still kept up with Constellation. "Excuse me, which way to Mastermind's lab?" She asked a passing Nightwing, putting on a voice Rainfall had never heard the commonly deadpan dragon use.

After getting directions, Constellation smiled a rare smile. " _These Nightwings think they've got it all figured out. They think they control Pyrrhia. The stuff I've seen outside this continent makes this place look like a measly gang of criminals."_ Rainfall knew what she was talking about. The amount of control places like Anibia had. The amount of military power and soldiers they had made the Nightwings look silly taking themselves seriously.

Constellation slowly opened a door that read "LAB." She poked her head in. "Mastermind?" She called. There was silence. "I think it's empty." She said and opened the door all the way. Inside was a large clean room with three levels. A level below, and a level above, the two higher levels with balconies overlooking the rest of the lab. "Up here." Constellation said, flying to the level above the floor they were on. Rainfall followed her as she picked up a strange spear and began looking into rooms. "This is awful." Rainfall said as he peered into one of the chambers, seeing a Rainwing bound up and crying on the rock floor. He had always heard about what Nightwings did, but he had never seen it himself. "You get used to it." Constellation said. She peered into another chamber. "You said Chameleon was permanently light-green?" She asked. "Yeah." Rainfall replied. "Well I think I found him."

Constellation stepped aside and swung open the door to the room and handed Rainfall the spear. "Use this to free his mouth." Rainfall steeled himself and began walking inside. He hadn't seen his friend in a long time and had been worrying that he was dead. "I'm not accompanying you inside." The Nightwing said behind him. "This is your journey."

Rainfall timidly stepped inside the room. On the ground lay a skinny, light green Rainwing. He was shivering. He looked incredibly unhealthy. He was bound by metallic bonds on his wings and claws that blocked him from escaping. Rainfall couldn't stop himself from tearing up. " _…Chameleon."_ He squeaked. The dragon stopped, and shakily stood up. He seemed like he was struggling. When he saw Rainfall standing in front of him, shock rippled through his eyes, and then anger. He was painfully frail. His color was worse than normal. His eyes were shaky and bloodshot.

Rainfall used the spear to free his old friend's mouth gag. The metal clattered to the floor. "You…" Chameleon said. His voice was raspy, as if he hadn't used it in years. "You're alive." "Same goes for you." Rainfall said, smiling. He could feel the colors of happiness run through his scales. Chameleon was alive.

"How…" Chameleon asked. "Or is this a mirage? Am I seeing visions of hate as I die? I must be…" "Hate…?" Rainfall asked, surprised. He thought his friend would be happy to see him. "You're dead… My mind is finally going…" Chameleon whispered.

"Do you know what happened to us as a result of your push for answers?" Chameleon asked, trembling. "Marvelous was killed. Those Nightwings ripped her open right there. Red rain, pouring on the leaves. I was taken here. They experimented on me. My venom. But my scales… I am unfit for this place… They decided that I was worth less than the other Rainwings…"

Rainfall stared at his friend. Chameleon coughed a raspy cough, and a slight shake from the volcano seemed to amplify their power. "They feed me less… They care for me less… At first, I was happy to be ignored by them, but they're just waiting for me to die… There are better specimens… The smoke is killing me… the food is poisoning me… I am starving… then I will die too… Just like Marvelous and Rainfall…"

"We can save you. I am not dead." Rainfall said. "I'm here with a Nightwing named Constellation, we can save you." _Marvelous is gone, but I can still save Chameleon._

"And why… would I want… to go… with you…?" Chameleon croaked. "It's all your fault to begin with… You wouldn't drop your hunger to know the secrets… and it killed… us all…" Chameleon looked up at Rainfall with nothing but hate in his eyes. "I hate you."

Rainfall stepped backward, the tears dawning in the corners of his eyes turning from happy to despair and anger. "I have waited… two years for this moment… even if it's all a hallucination. I want to _see_ you get what's coming to you!" Chameleon screamed, his voice sounding like that of a banshee, and opened his mouth to spit venom at Rainfall. Rainfall let out a yell of his own as he spread out his wings in fear. Constellation charged in without hesitation, ramming into Chameleon with one of the Nightwing spears, catching his wing with it. Chameleon yelled as the spear ripped through his wing and Constellation threw him across the chamber. The spear lodged itself between the membrane and the muscle of the wing. "We need to go." Constellation said urgently. "All the yelling and screaming has definitely alerted Nightwings."

Rainfall turned and looked at his friend, who was letting out a whimpering sound as he pulled the spear out. "Don't help him. He's not your friend anymore. This place has changed him." Constellation warned. "But… he is my friend." Rainfall said innocently.

"Do you really think that matters? Do you really think the world cares about who is and who isn't your friend? He's too far gone. This isn't some story where the power of friendship can save you. Be realistic Rainfall." Constellation said grimly. "The world is cruel. It's a fact of life. Leave him. We need to go." "But it's not always bad… sometimes the world is good!" Rainfall argued, still staring at the writhing body of Chameleon as blood began to leak from the wound as the spear slowly came out. "We need to go. Look at what's in front of you and decide if this world is really good all the time." Constellation said.

Rainfall looked at the dragon in front of him, who was growling menacingly, the same fire burning in his eyes. Chameleon was gone. He was dead, just like Marvelous, and this was a vengeful ghost. " _I'll kill you… It's all your fault…"_ Chameleon hissed. The blood loss was making him even weaker. He was going to die.

The noise of voices suddenly snapped Rainfall back to his current time. Nightwings were coming. He heard Constellation begin to try and stall them outside in the lab. "This Rainwing attacked me. I stabbed him with the spear…" Rainfall closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Chameleon." He turned invisible and left the chamber as Chameleon continued to whimper behind him.

 **Present day.**

"Once we become Travelers… we're leaving, right?" Frost asked Rainfall. "Go out and live together?" Rainfall turned to her. They had devised a plan to leave the Traveler fortress and live together in another world. They both had the Kiss of the Void. They were going to leave the Rainforest, the cities of the Ice Kingdom. They were going to leave Pyrrhia and its history behind. They were going to live in a world of future technology, together. They would still come back and help the Travelers with their project to stop Lucifer's plans to end everything, but beyond that… they would be free together. The world would be theirs to explore, and they were going to do it together. Nothing could stop them or tell them "no."

Frost never had gotten any confirmation whether her cousin was still alive or not. She was still rather upset about not being able to see Blizzard again. Rainfall had had his own reckoning with the life he left behind. He had already closed one chapter of his life. He was sad to see it go, but he knew that the next chapter promised something far greater.

"Do you think we'll ever have dragonets?" Frost asked. The bluntness of the question startled Rainfall, who slightly stumbled back. Frost laughed. "I knew you'd have that reaction!" She teased. "I wasn't serious. I don't think we could ever have dragonets with the whole… Traveler thing." "Well… they would have a weird life, that's for sure." Rainfall said, calming down a bit.

A Mudwing passing by suddenly tapped Frost on the shoulder. "I think those two dragonets are calling for you." Rainfall and Frost looked up to see Swiftwind and Mahogany standing beneath a palm tree, a bit hard to see in the afternoon light. Swiftwind looked concerned and Mahogany looked very anxious. "Uh oh." Rainfall said.

The four friends flew on top of a nearby building so that nobody could hear them. "What's going on?" Frost asked. "Mahogany has something he needs to tell you two." Swiftwind said, a kind of scared look in her eyes. Mahogany's eyes looked sunken. "I don't know if we're on the right side anymore." He said honestly. "Jerboa and the other heads of the Travelers might have an agenda where the ends justify the means, and the means aren't very good."

"You see, on the first day with Papyrus and Apollo, remember when Jerboa wanted to have a private meeting with me?" Mahogany said, and Rainfall recalled the first time he and Frost ever sat on the bridge. "Well, she informed me that she didn't come find me for no reason at all, and that I was very important to the Travelers. She told me not to tell anybody, so I never did." Mahogany drew in a shaky breath. "She called me a 'weapon that will strike the Demons down.' She promised to tell me what that meant when the time came. For two years I didn't know what that meant. But just now, I asked Abyss as he was leaving. He decided to tell me what it meant."

Mahogany looked up at the sky and then all around. Rainfall wondered what he was doing but quickly realized he was checking to make sure nobody was watching them. "I had begun to wonder… when Fjord and Horizon showed up… but Abyss confirmed it. The Nightwing that attacked my sibs had a soul. And I killed him, meaning that soul is now within me. Jerboa only took me out of my world because she wanted the soul."

The weight of this sank into the hearts of Rainfall and Frost like a rock in a muddy puddle. "And I'm just one dragonet! Think about all the different dragons and people they could have done this to!" "And that's not all." Swiftwind said. "I once talked with another Traveler that came from beyond Pyrrhia, and he said he believed the Travelers have plans to terrorize the other nations if needed. We weren't sure, but apparently, earlier today while we were investigating that other world, an explosion rocked the capital of Atesi, Yeni Akhad." "How are you so sure that was the Travelers?" Rainfall challenged.

"Yeni Akhad just elected a president to office that had very pro-war views. He said he would spearhead a new discussion to invade Pyrrhia to the League of Unity." The League of Unity was the international group of allies that formed after the last great war. "Now, nobody except you Pyrrhians would be opposed to this, and the Travelers are the only dragons in Pyrrhia I am aware of that know the existence of the truth." Swiftwind said.

"Three moons… are we fighting for the wrong side?" Frost asked. Rainfall's mind was racing. Did the Travelers really do bad things in the name of good? Did they have terror threats planned for the outside world? Just what _was_ the plan to stop Lucifer?

 **Sorry for such a long wait. I got busy over the holidays.**


	50. Chapter 44: Attack

"You see, your majesty, we have much to offer you." Commander Dufort said. Queen Ruby nodded slowly, her guards watching the conversation with awe. It wasn't every day that five scavengers dressed in funny clothes and spoke Dragon, which Ruby had just recently learned was actually called Arnish, came and asked for an alliance. "And I suppose you are proof that what Jade Mountain sent me was true." Ruby said, the letter written by the Dragonets of Destiny sitting on the arm of her throne. She had read it at least ten times since it had arrived. "It will be a tough thing to enforce." Ruby continued. "Dragons have been treating your kind as nothing more than animals for thousands of years. It will be hard to suddenly tell them it's illegal to do so."

"With the technology we have, I doubt anyone will be complaining." Dufort said. "With our ideas, your kingdom will flourish." "And tensions are at a height. If war breaks out, we will need those weapons." Ruby said. "I have made my decision. In trade for schematics and information on Old Monarchy's technology, the Skywings will grant you and your citizens rights within this kingdom and protect Old Monarchy from threats if needed."

. . .

Vine and Swordfish sat alone in the cave Vine had been sleeping in since she arrived in this world. Vine was glad the Necklace of Sola had repaired her eye. She had been worried that she would never see clearly again. "You know that's why she wanted to kill us." Vine said. "We have the Kiss of the Void. That makes us dangerous to them." Swordfish was silent. He was staring at the floor. "Was it really her fault?" Vine whispered. "It doesn't matter what she could and couldn't control." Swordfish burst out. "It doesn't matter who's fault it is that ANY of this happened. She lied to us, betrayed us, kept secrets, and tried to kill us. She killed Rainfall, Pike, Changbai, and Coconut, and almost killed many more. She is _not_ our ally!" Swordfish stormed out of the room, leaving Vine to cry by herself. " _But… not Blizzard too…"_ She whispered. But nobody heard her.

. . .

Falcon landed on the ground in front of the soldiers. A Mudwing bared her teeth, but an Aniwing emerging from inside the battleship called her off. "Stop. That's the spy." He said. "Falcon, right? You're lucky we were here to pick you up so you didn't have to make it all the way to Midhalm on just your wings." Falcon nodded. "Yeah. I'm Falcon."

He was lucky to find an Anibian battleship out here. They must have been from the island colony of Midhalm, patrolling the seas for anything coming from Pyrrhia. Midhalm was commonly referred to as "The Watchtower." As they were the closest anyone had gone to Pyrrhia, and would be the first to know if a Pyrrhian army began to cross the Kamay Ocean, the ocean that separated Thessalstia from Pyrrhia.

"What was it like over there?" Asked the other solider, a curious-looking Icewing. "I've heard stories that it's stuck in the 1500's." "It is." Falcon said. "But there's something that I need to get to Commander Ghastly as soon as possible." "Alright, I'll get them to turn this boat around and get back to Midhalm." Said the Aniwing. He spread his wings and began to fly towards the command of the ship.

"What did you do over there?" Asked the Icewing. "Well, I wandered around for a bit. Apparently, the entire continent just had a massive war. I found a school that was built inside a mountain, run by these good-intentioned, yet ignorant dragonets that had stopped the war as foretold by a prophecy. I pretended to be a teacher from the Skywing nation that had lost his job, and they gave me a job." Falcon had been a professor back at Namsura University in Wilmingfield. His studies into the Pyrrhian rebellion had been why the military had asked him to go undercover in Pyrrhia. Technology had finally surpassed what the world feared Pyrrhia was capable of. And they were right. Their only animuses were Stonemover and Turtle, who posed no possible threat to the Allies. The time for a final invasion of the continent was soon.

But what the Icewing asked next caught Falcon by surprise. "Are they truly evil?"

. . .

 _Our trust in the Travelers had been shaken. We didn't know if we were supporting the right side anymore. Sure, Lucifer's plans were dangerous, but was Jerboa's way of stopping him bad too?_

 _We had no idea. But the next morning was our Earring Ceremony. We would become full Travelers._

 _But then what would we do?_

. . .

The four dragonets stood attentively in the room where they began their initiation into the Travelers. The rugs had been replaced since then, but it was still the same sunlight that shone through the long, skinny windows. Papyrus and Apollo stood on either side of the door, waiting for Jerboa to enter with the earrings. They had gotten their ears pierced already, and Rainfall was restraining himself from touching the fresh puncture. They all had their white robes now, hoods down, pockets with tools and weapons arranged in the traditional way. Quick-attach rifle from the foreign country of Shongui at the side. Rainfall and Frost were wearing the traditional World-Crosser necklace worn for Traveler tradition. It had a small blue stone surrounded by a silver ring. Swiftwind had been given the option to wear a Balksland army helmet, which she did. The crest of Balksland, an eagle holding a sickle in its talons, shone in silver on the side of the dark grey metal. There was silence, only interrupted by a small cough from Apollo. And then Jerboa entered.

The Travelers had been going on long before Jerboa was the head of the society. They had been formed about 600 years after the Scorching, started by a Seawing named Gill of Harshire, who believed Camael was something he called an "Other." Although most of the old traditions had been dropped, some of them still existed in traditional ceremonies.

Jerboa smiled at the dragonets. They stared back, showing no emotion. Each dragonet knew what the other was thinking. _Can we trust her?_ Mahogany drew in a loud, shaky breath. Rainfall watched Frost lower her head and let Jerboa clip the earring on her right ear. Two golden dragons entwined around each other. Modeled after the Earring of Sola, one of the Relics of Hamza. It had been used throughout history as a sign of restoration and peace, but was it a lie?

Frost shot Rainfall a quick look as she put her head back up. Rainfall lowered his head for his earring. He saw the face of Jerboa in front of him, and lightly ground his teeth together. He felt the metal ring click around his piercing. He was officially a Traveler. He raised his head and watched as Swiftwind lowered her head, and Jerboa did the same for her. Finally, Mahogany was also deemed a Traveler, the earring dangling from his ear as well. Jerboa turned and nodded at the teachers and left the room without a word.

"Alright then, congratulations!" Papyrus boomed. "You are now Travelers, free to…" A woman walked into the room and made eye contact with Papyrus and said something in Jeoul, the language the humans in Pyrrhia spoke, with urgency. Papyrus looked at Apollo, concern in his eyes. "The Flower of Easifa died. You explain it to them. I have to go." The Mudwing quickly walked out behind the woman.

Papyrus was gone. Perfect. Apollo was much weaker.

Apollo closed the door behind Papyrus and turned to the dragonets. "Alright, I guess I'm doing this… so now you have free reign of your abilities and this world… I-" Apollo was cut off as all four dragonets suddenly rushed him. Frost pulled a rag out of her cloak pocket and shoved it over Apollo's mouth as a gag. She gagged him as the other three pulled Apollo to the wall next to the door and held him there. Apollo made a muffled sound and swiped with his tail at Mahogany. It caught him in the cheek, and he let out a small grunt. Swiftwind took off her helmet and held it up threateningly. "Do something like that again and let's see how this works on skulls." She said quietly. Apollo's eyes darted around at the dragonets surrounding him.

"We're going to ask you a few questions." Swiftwind said as Rainfall, Frost, and Mahogany held the Skywing down. Rainfall was remaining a blue shade on the outside, but inside he was panicking. He couldn't believe they were going through with the plan to get answers. It had been his plan… but he still couldn't believe it was happening. "Answer truthfully, or I'll strike with the metal helmet here. But I don't think _you'll_ lie to us. I think we're on the same side." Rainfall saw a bead of sweat trickle down the Skywing's face.

"What exactly _is_ the plan to defeat Lucifer?" Swiftwind asked. Frost removed the gag. Apollo exhaled loudly. "Scream and see what happens." Mahogany said quickly. Apollo looked at the dragonets. "Which one of you planned this?" He asked softly. They were silent, but Rainfall swallowed. "It doesn't matter… I guess. We are on the same side here, I've always said that _everyone_ should know the plan, but some of the higher-ups don't like that."

"So, you'll tell us?" Frost asked. "The plan is… complicated." Apollo said. "Uh… Basically, the Travelers need 9 souls. They want to have Travelers kill Lucifer and all 8 of the King's Council, so we can assume control over Hell." "And how many souls do they have?" Swiftwind asked threateningly, and with a hint of anxiety and unsureness. "Uhh… Well… I'm not exactly… qualified to know that… But I had a hunch that they've had at least two for a long time, but a few years ago, this Nightwing named Thoughtspeaker disappeared. I always suspected he was one of the carriers… and I was only more convinced of this when we started looking for him."

Rainfall looked at Mahogany, who was staring at Apollo with horror. "What if someone with one of the souls dies?" Rainfall asked. "Well… Papyrus once told me about an older Seawing named Salmon that used to be a Traveler. One day he disappeared, and the Travelers said that he was sick and died in his sleep, but they never showed a body. Which was weird because he was one of the top Travelers." Apollo said shakily. Swiftwind stepped back, her mind probably coming to the same conclusion Rainfall's had. "They keep the souls in a body until they become undesirable of some kind, and then have someone else kill them to keep the soul in the Travelers." Swiftwind said with shock. Apollo nodded meekly. "Or at least, I think that's it." He said.

Mahogany looked at his friends with tears of terror in his eyes. "Oh no…" Frost whispered. "I have a soul." Mahogany said to Apollo. "Jerboa… she just… took me after I killed that Nightwing." "Thoughtspeaker." Rainfall said. "They took me here… they turned me into a Traveler… only to have me killed…" Mahogany whispered. "Then they have two." Frost said, sharing a worried glance with Rainfall, who was now full pale green, with hints of red. "Make that four." Swiftwind said. "Horizon and Fjord are straight out of the Console. They probably brought them here to have them join or die."

"Three moons…" Mahogany said, trembling. "Well… I mean… what else are we going to do?" Apollo said quietly. "The only way to defeat a demon is to have someone with a soul kill them. Lucifer's plans… Project Liberation… will continue as long as the Council still has control. And if that happens, we'll _all_ die. This is the only way."

Swiftwind looked up at the ceiling. "He… has a point. That might be the only surefire way to do it. Animus magic is kind of… unreliable." It was common knowledge within the Travelers that although animus magic couldn't _kill_ or _hurt_ a demon, it could do other things to slow them down. "I've long suspected this to be the plan, and to be honest, I don't see another way. A few lives in trade for all lives… sounds like a good trade to me." Apollo said in a trembling voice.

There was silence before Rainfall spoke up. "What is the Flower of Easifa?" He asked. "Something an Anibian queen enchanted about 400 years ago. We stole it from them. It's a small orchid that only blooms when it can sense danger. Which is why you four picked a bad time to do this…" Apollo said. "I thought Papyrus said it died…" Frost said slowly. "He did. Which is the bad part. It was enchanted to stay alive, which is why it's been around for 400 years. But just now it suddenly dies…" "Something killed it." Rainfall finished. "Something doesn't want us to have warning." "Which makes me think that they found us." Apollo said darkly.

"Well, what do we do?" Mahogany asked. "Do we stay with the Travelers or should we run away now before the Demons come?" "We probably don't have much time." Frost said. "If we run away now, he will tell them, and the Travelers will come looking for Mahogany." Swiftwind said, pointing at Apollo. "So what do we do?" Frost asked. "We could make him promise or something, make him prove that he's a good dragon." Rainfall offered. "No. We can't rely on something like that." Frost said. "What if we just… got rid of him…" She slowed as she reached the end of her sentence, and Apollo's eyes darted back to the faces of the dragonets. "I taught you all… I never expected…" He stammered in bewilderment.

"We can't do that." Mahogany said. "Look. We'll keep this all a secret between us all and know what the Travelers are doing. Maybe we can still try to stop Lucifer, and simultaneously work against Jerboa in the shadows." Apollo nodded eagerly. "I'm sure there are other Travelers that will help us. Coyote and Constellation for sure. Our biggest problem will probably be Abyss... he's hard to keep secrets from." Apollo stammered. When Apollo finished his sentence, they all stopped and realized something. It had gotten… rather quiet outside. The normal noises of Possibility had fallen silent. The whole city had suddenly… stopped.

The dragonets let go of Apollo, and quickly walked out the door. Frost stopped Rainfall before he walked out. "We should go off by ourselves. Screw the Travelers, we can go off and live on our own." Frost said. "No, we can't. Not when we still have friends here." Rainfall said. "Yeah. That's true." Frost said glumly. "We could take them with us… We can finally be free…" She said, but Rainfall was already walking away. There were other Travelers walking towards the exits. They all seemed… concerned with the silence as well.

When the door on the street opened, and the Travelers poured out onto the road. They were greeted by a world frozen in time. Dragons were frozen in their activities. A cabbage falling out of a vendor's cart was floating in midair. A nearby fountain's water was suspended in time. A bird flying above the city was frozen. "What…" Swiftwind asked nobody in particular. Rainfall stared all around him at the city standing still. "We're the only ones still moving." Someone said. "This is…"

The street nearby suddenly cracked open. The Travelers began to yell and take to the sky as all around them, the streets of Possibility opened up, the sandstone and cobblestone streets looking like scales, and dragons began to crawl out. The dragons were mostly Sandwings and Skywings, but there were a few of the other tribes too. But they all had one thing in common. They were all covered in that dark green webbing Rainfall recognized from the woman in Sydney.

Frost let out a shriek as the dragons began walking, ripping their disgusting cocoon-type webbing as they walked. Their eyes were staring at the dragons and humans in the air above them, ignoring the frozen citizens of Possibility right next to them. The eyes were dark and gaunt. The dragons were skinny, and moved in strange, almost puppet-like movements. The Travelers began screaming and loading weapons, ready to fight the small army of dragons.

Papyrus flew over to Rainfall and his friends. "That's the same webbing you found around the dead woman on your mission, right?" He asked. He was obviously scared too. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Swiftwind asked. Papyrus shook his head. "Never. This is… new." "Who's causing this?" Rainfall asked. "Most definitely Stygal." Papyrus answered, not breaking his gaze from the creatures below. "That webbing seems to heal wounds… These are dead soldiers from the old fights the Sandwings and Skywings have had over Possibility. They've been reanimated."

A man suddenly rushed out of the underground and screamed when he saw the dragons in front of him. He pulled out a pistol and shot the one nearest to him in the side. The webbing seemed to absorb the bullet. The Travelers began flying down to engage the dead but were too late. Rainfall watched with horror as the Skywing the man had shot suddenly burst forward, shedding all of its webbing. It ripped through the man's body with its claws, tearing him into shreds, ripping his stomach clean off.

"THEY ARE HOSTILE. ENGAGE THE DEAD WITH LETHAL FORCE!" Jerboa ordered at the top of her lungs. The Travelers began descending to meet their enemy, but the dead soldiers took flight too, their wings ripping through the seaweed-like substance, and began to fly as well.

Rainfall turned to look at Frost. "I can't…" He began, but she was looking at the top of a nearby building. On it were three figures. A human skeleton wearing dark robes, holding a simple scythe. A strange, two-headed dragon with blue streaks down it's body, it's talons looking like swords, it's tails sharp and pointed. And finally, a dark-green robed man-like figure with a long-beaked skull for a head, in his hand, a bow, on his back, a quill of arrows.

Stygal. Miczariel. Adnachiel. The enemy was here.

. . .

 _The Demons had found us, and Stygal had raised an army of dead dragons to attack us. But the real problem would be Adnachiel and Miczariel. This would be my first time going up against a demon, and they were two of the most dangerous. Miczariel, the warrioress, and Adnachiel, the hunter. Specifically designed for killing non-demonic beings._

 _I thought I would die in that battle. I survived. Sometimes I feel like it all would have been better if I died, but then there would be nobody to do what I must do. I lived for a reason._

. . .

The Travelers met the dead dragons head on, shooting them in the skulls with their rifles, spearing them, and using just their claws. But the dragons seemed resilient. Unless it was a clear shot to the head, they would just keep going, their bodies seeming to ignore the damage done. The three demons watched from the rooftops, except for Stygal, who turned into a raven with the shapeshifting powers of a Demon and began flying around the battle.

Rainfall watched all of this from above. The Travelers had taught him how to use his Rainwing powers to their fullest extent. Rainfall still refused to sleep during what would be sun time, something even the other Rainwings found odd about him. Rainfall had been trained to use his venom and his color changing scales to his advantage. He had been designated as an "assassin." While Frost and Swiftwind had been called "assault" and Mahogany "support" based on their abilities and talents. Rainfall felt he had finally been proven correct by being taught to use his Rainwing abilities as weapons and methods of survival, and not just for show and beauty.

Rainfall watched the battle from above, waiting for the best time to strike, watching the two other demons warily. He watched the two demons on the building. He knew he was unable to do anything against them, so he waited and watched. He mostly focused on Frost and Stygal's raven. Frost fought well, nearly killing one of the dead dragons on her first try.

Frost had been raised by her father to be an Icewing soldier in the war. She always had to try so hard to beat Blizzard due to her family's competitive nature, but what really did it was what her father always taught her. Rainfall remembered the story Frost told him.

Frost once asked her father about the morals of killing. She had been taught by another instructor about what happened out in the war. "The enemy dragons may have a life. They may not be a bad dragon. They may have a family. But you must disregard all of that in the heart of the battle. They may have something back home, noble ideals, good morals, but they are the enemy. And in war, the enemy will take away your family. Your dragons. Your home. Because they know the same about you. If you do not fight, it will all be taken away. Death is bad, but if you do not fight, what you care about will be ripped away from you."

So Frost fought. She once told Rainfall she would do everything she could to protect the ones she cares about. Rainfall watched her breathe frostbreath on a dead Sandwing and shoot him in the temple when he slowed. Rainfall then realized he had been lost in thought, and the raven had been lost from sight. Rainfall finally spotted it flying around behind him in circles. It then landed on a small windowsill of the building which held the doors to the underground, which had been closed. The raven let out a shrill call that echoed throughout the battle.

The dead dragons suddenly turned from the Travelers and began flying towards the direction of the raven, ignoring what previously seemed to be their target. "DON'T LET THEM GET IN!" Cried the voice of Jerboa. "HOLD THAT DOOR WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE!" Rainfall scanned the crowd, picking out his friends, hoping they weren't in the small group of dead bodies that now lay on the cracked street.

Where was Mahogany?

A sudden, creeping thought appeared in Rainfall's mind. He looked around for Fjord and Horizon. They were gone too. The dragons with souls had been locked inside for safety, and the Demons now knew that. That was now their target. Up on the building, Miczariel spread her wings wide and leapt into the battle. Adnachiel drew his bow.

The Travelers screamed as Miczariel breathed fire down upon the building. As fire rained down, a small fireball seemed to roll down on the street below. "Rainfall!" Cried out the voice of Frost and Swiftwind, who were flying towards him. Rainfall looked at Adnachiel, and then the fireball, which looked dangerously ready to explode. "LOOK OUT!" Someone cried. Adnachiel fired his bow at the fireball and it exploded.

Rainfall went flying backward as the street exploded, sending chunks of rock, sand, and bodies flying everywhere. Rainfall landed on the roof of another building. Frost landed nearby, and Swiftwind fell into a palm tree, the impact of the trunk against her back making her slump to the ground. Rainfall quickly got up and helped up Frost. "Oh no…" Frost said, pointing behind Rainfall.

Behind Rainfall, there was fire and death rampaging. Adnachiel and Miczariel were engaging with full force now, and out of the crater the explosion had left behind, more of the undead began to crawl. Their faces covered by Stygal's disgusting webs. The remaining Travelers were fighting back, using their strange weapons and abilities against the demons and their dead soldiers. Only they couldn't do anything against the Demons. Command had locked the only ones capable of doing anything away inside. Rainfall checked the door. The explosion had been far enough away that most defenses around the door were okay, but Rainfall noticed that some of the dead dragons were beginning to fly around the building. Soon, they would have the whole place encircled.

"Hey! Come on! We need to help Swiftwind and go find Mahogany!" Frost cried. She began descending to help the unconscious Skywing below them. Rainfall looked back at the battle, and then spread his wings to help his friends below.

Swiftwind was knocked out. When Frost woke her up by pressing her cold scales to Swiftwind's face, the Skywing cringed with pain. "Ow… my head… my back…" She moaned. Frost continued to put her cold scales on the parts she damaged. "We're going to go save who we can, and then get out of here." Frost said. "Wait… we are?" Rainfall asked her. "Yes. We're leaving the Travelers. We don't have anything left here anymore. Let's get Mahogany, Coyote, Constellation, Apollo, and anyone else we care about, and leave." Frost said.

When Swiftwind claimed she was well enough to fly, the three headed out for the battlefield again. "We should be fine as long as we stay hidden away enough." Swiftwind said, gritting her teeth slightly. "Miczariel is purely battle, but Adnachiel is for taking out isolated targets. He can sense them, but there's enough here that we shouldn't stand out particularly."

They landed outside an alley and entered a building through a side door. Inside, they found a dying man with dark skin, clutching his knee. He yelled something at them in another language. Rainfall could hear himself breathing heavily. They had all been trained for something like this, but never expected it to happen.

Near the doorway, there was a Skywing in a Traveler's hood facing the wall, muttering something to himself. He turned around and the three were greeted by Apollo's face. "…You're alive…" He said with disbelief. "I've been in here for… I thought…" "They locked the ones with souls inside." Swiftwind said. Apollo nodded. "Yep… thought they'd do that." Another small blast rocked the room.

"They're committing mass suicide!" Frost yelled. "They're too scared to let go of any of the souls they have!" Apollo nodded again. "The Demons are here to kill them. Jerboa won't have any of that."

There was silence between the four dragons. "Well… we're going to go get them." Frost said. "I was told that I need to protect my kind at all costs by my father, and any Travelers that aren't going to support them, are my kind. Would you like to escape with us?" Apollo thought for a moment. "Let's go see what's going on out there." He said.

The four dragons snuck outside of the house and entered the smoke cloud that had gathered from the explosion. They were attacked by the top half of a Skywing, using his front claws to crawl towards them, webbing and ancient intestines dragging along the street, a gargled roar escaping his mouth. Apollo killed it easily with a gunshot to the head. They said nothing.

All around them were Travelers killing the dead, sometimes the result of the other way around. Dragons and humans with their chests ripped open, their heads clawed apart, their necks in shreds. Rainfall thought he was going to be sick. He tried to think about the calm, peaceful rainforest, while putting one talon in front of the other, keeping his wings tucked back. He heard screams and dark calls.

After slowly traveling a few blocks into the destruction, they began to see more and more of the bodies of the Demon's victims, but they were covered in the webbing. Almost cocoon-like. It seemed to be spreading through some of them, slowing enveloping their bloodied bodies. Along with the firelight through the smoke, this was a complete hellscape. Something of a nightmare, but real.

"It's… wrapping them up." Frost said, pointing to a woman completely covered in the dark green strings. Rainfall looked ahead of him. There was a body that had minimal webbing in front of them. A Mudwing. Apollo let out a soft cry and ran forward. Papyrus.

As the once powerfully friendly face of their old instructor came into view, Rainfall and his friends' horror became even deeper. "Apollo…" Papyrus called out. His stomach was cut and was bleeding out everywhere. "It got me…" He groaned. "It's… eating me…"

Frost threw up behind Rainfall. Apollo began ripping at the webs with a long knife, but they grew back, and began growing faster. "Maybe… we can still…" Swiftwind began, her voice trembling. "Go… get out of here…" Papyrus ordered as he bled out. "Save the souls…" He stopped, his eyes stopping. He was dead. Apollo let out a cry and hugged his friend. "No…" He whispered, and began cutting the webs again, but they grew incredibly fast now. Apollo let out a scream as he cut them faster and faster, but he couldn't stop them from completely covering Papyrus.

Rainfall looked around in horror, gripping Frost with terror. He heard a nearby arrow whizz past. And then… a raven's call.

The sound seemed to echo throughout the smoke. He heard screaming from remaining Travelers. And then the sound of Apollo letting out a scream of his own. Apollo got up and backed away. Rainfall looked around. Swiftwind pointed as one of the corpses from before suddenly began to get up. Rainfall screamed as the body of Papyrus began to move again, reaching for them. They were surrounded by the dead on all sides. Stygal had turned the newly dead into more soldiers. Including Papyrus.

Apollo's mind seemed to break at this moment. He began almost laughing as his friend began to rip out of the webbing, reaching for him. Swiftwind reacted, shooting the corpse of Papyrus in the chest. It wouldn't kill him, but he fell back down. "Come on!" Frost cried, spreading her wings. Rainfall grabbed Apollo's wing. "HEY! FLY!" He yelled. Apollo began to fly, but Rainfall felt cold talons on his tail. He yelled as another one of the undead pulled him down. The body of Papyrus began to flail and run towards him like a broken puppet. Rainfall unhinged his jaw and spewed venom all over the arm of the dragon that was holding him. It let out a hiss as the arm began to disintegrate. Papyrus lunged at Rainfall with an open mouth, but Rainfall spat venom into his throat, letting the head decay from within.

Rainfall took off again, looking back at the two undead dragons. This wasn't how he imagined his first day as a Traveler going.

When they reached the door, they were instantly stopped by Jerboa appearing in front of them. "Frost. Rainfall." She said. "Go inside. You two are the last two world jumpers I can find. Go get Mahogany, Fjord, and Horizon, and bring them to another world. One of the other Travelers preferably." Swiftwind opened her mouth, but Rainfall nodded. "Yes Jerboa." He said and grabbed Frost by the arm.

The three dragonets made their way to the door and got two Travelers to open for them. "Good luck world jumpers." One said. Rainfall made a last look for Coyote and Constellation, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Once inside, Frost pointed to the first room of the underground, one of the few with any form of window. It had a large window to the outside with an old painted glass picture of Hamza. "In here." She said. Swiftwind moaned, her back and head probably hurting again. They entered the room. "This is perfect." Frost said. "We take Mahogany and leave." "What about everyone else?" Rainfall protested. "Look. You three and Mahogany are my closest friends. You are my tribe. Nothing else is above that." Frost said. Swiftwind took off her helmet and pressed her back to the wall near the window. "Look, we _need_ to get out of here." Swiftwind said. "We're going to die if we don't."

And then, the window shattered. Six pairs of talons reached in. Swiftwind screamed as the glass shards impaled themselves in her scales. Rainfall panicked and drew his gun, firing at the arms, but instead hit Swiftwind's wing. Rainfall and Frost could only watch in horror as their friend was suddenly ripped out of the broken window and out by the dead. She screamed, and then it was quiet as her throat was slit by an Icewing.

Rainfall and Frost ran out of the room and slammed the door shut, grabbing an old desk and stopping the door with it. They grabbed an old bookshelf too, slamming it against the old wood. But judging from the banging that soon echoed from the door, it wouldn't last forever.

Frost began to cry, and clutched Rainfall. "I… I… echhh…." She managed. Rainfall cried too, the imprint of the bullet hitting Swiftwind's wing imprinted in his mind. _It was his fault. Again. Just like Chameleon._

"There's only one thing to do now." Frost cried. "I don't want to lose you. I want to live with you forever." "Me too…" Rainfall said, his voice trembling, tears falling down his face. His scales were nothing but pale, pale green.

"But the Demons… this… the Travelers… it won't leave us alone, will it?" Frost cried. "I want to live a life of freedom! I want to be free! But I guess there's only one way to be invincible to all of this…"

Frost looked Rainfall in the eyes. "We kill Fjord and Horizon and take their souls. Then we kill Miczariel and Adnachiel and inherit them." Rainfall looked at her. "Our wills are strong enough. We can do it. I bet I can become Adnachiel."

 **Here. We. Go.**


End file.
